Simphiwe Mbunyuza was born in 1989 in Butterworth, Eastern Cape,South Africa. Mbunyuza has been the subject of numerous exhibitions around theworld, including recent presentations with Marianne Boesky in Aspen, Colorado,USA, and Gallery 1957 in London and Accra,Ghana, among others. He is the recipient of awards and residencies includingthe Anderson Ranch Arts Center in 2021; the Red Clay Faction Award and OscarJacobson Award from The University of Oklahoma in 2019; a residency with A.I.RVallauris, France, in 2017 and has been invited to participate on a 2-years residency at world-renowned Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, USA.

His masterful practice of richly textured, often large-scale, ceramic sculptures explores the relationships and interactionsbetween the present and the past, paying tribute to traditions and to thespirits of ancestors, particularly those of the Xhosa people. He draws fromboth present and historical influences as a method of sharing his heritagethrough a unique, contemporary lens.