RICKY DYALOYI
(b.1974, Gugulethu, Cape Town, South Africa)

Ricky Dyaloyi’s oeuvre has its roots in the Thupelo programme – a workshop that encouraged artistic growth by exchanging ideas, experiences, techniques and disciplines within a shared space or studio. The programme started in the 1980s in Johannesburg and later was brought to Cape Town in the 1990s.

Dyaloyi’s imagery and thematics evolved concurrently with South Africa’s first democratic elections – a momentous period in South Africa’s history when there was an influx of discourse and exchange between all South African artists in the country. Dyaloyi’s style of painting reflects ordinary citizens going about their daily lives, rendered in heightened colours to reveal the effervescent quality of the community and people with whom he lives. With an uncanny determination, Dyaloyi aims to unravel the simple mysteries of the human condition through his medium of choice: oil paint.

Dyaloyi continues to explore the unerring dynamism and apparently indomitable spirit of everyday citizens in urban South Africa. “Each piece visually narrates the diverse stories of survival, from overcoming marginalization to embracing hope,” he explains. His paintings serve as both homage and exhortation to the workers, commuters, the street vendors, that surge through his canvases, at once legion and yet individually depicted and dignified by his hand.

Dyaloyi’s genius is his ability to see how the trees make up the wood. The individuals in his multitudes are teased out just enough for us to recognise each figure as both idiosyncratic and archetypal. Because he relays stories about everyday resilience and endurance being the sum of a people’s constituent parts, all the protagonists get equal treatment and have equal significance. As if to amplify this, Dyaloyi paints portraits which, juxtaposed with his crowd scenes, invite us to zoom in and single out people in the crowd, and recognise or imagine each of their unique contributions to the story.

“Through these visual narratives,” Dyaloyi comments, “I explore the shared human spirit that persists, adapts, and thrives – an artistic ode to the daily perseverance that guides us toward a better tomorrow.”

Everard Read presented Dyaloyi's work at Expo Chicago in 2025 and 2024, and 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London in 2015, and his work was spotlighted at the same fair in 2018 by Spier Arts Trust. Everard Read published a monograph on Dyaloyi in 2016 and an essay on the artist is included in Ashraf Jamal's In The World: Essays on Contemporary South African Art, published in 2017.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025
Abahambi Balomhlaba (Those that roam the Earth), Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2023
Impilo ifun'abomeleleyo (Living Requires Strength), Everard Read, Cape Town & 16 on Lerotholi, Cape Town, South Africa

2022
Solo Exhibiton - UKUPHUMA KWE LANGA  |  LIGHT USHERING IN THE DAWN OF A NEW DAY, Everard Read, London, UK

2019
Southern Aspect - A Group Exhibition, Everard Read, London, UK

2018
A Paradox of Our Times, CIRCA, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
Shaman of the Everyday, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2011
Isifuba Siphandle, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2009
Recent works, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2005
Solo Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2003
New Works, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2001
A selection of works, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

1998
Solo Exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

2025
WINTER 2025|2026, Everard Read, London, UK

2024

Winter Collection, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Locating Identity, 16 on Lerotholi, Cape Town, South Africa
EXPO CHICAGO, with Everard Read, Chicago, USA
Southern Light, Everard Read, London, UK

2023

What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Abantu Bethu, 16 on Lerotholi, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa 
110 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Everard Read, London, UK

2022

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa 
Things I’d like to remember, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2021

In Conversation, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Oasis: 25th anniversary group exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2020

The Portrait Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa 
IMAGO, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Journeys of the Mind, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2019

Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Southern Aspect, Everard Read, London, United Kingdom

2018

Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read Cape Town, South Africa
Material Gains, Stellenbosch University Museum, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2017
Summer Exhibition, Group show, Everard Read, London, UK

2016
Group Exhibition, CIRCA gallery London, United Kingdom
Everard Read Cape Town booth, Cape Town Art Fair, South Africa

2015
CIRCA Johannesburg Booth, 1:54 African Art Fair, Somerset House, London, United Kingdom
Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
EMPIRE, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
Summer Season, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
The City, Imibala Gallery in association with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Winter show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2013
100, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Possessed, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2012
Winter Show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Small Works, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2011
15th Anniversary, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2010
Khumalo, Mzimba, Dyaloyi – three man show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
View from the South, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa.

2009
Sex, Power, Money, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa.
Dyaloyi & Sekete, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa.
The City, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa.

2006
Small Works, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa.

2004
10 - Celebrating ten years of Democracy, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
C.A.P., Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Cape Town. South Africa.
Zabalaza Exhibition, Oxford University, Oxford , United Kingdom.