User:Sindiso84ria

Sindiso Nyoni aka R!OT

Sindiso Nyoni (born June 27 1984) is a Zimbabwean self developed artist, activist, multi-disciplinary designer and contemporary illustrator. Inspired by comic book art, the year '1968', vintage animation and words, his work primarily consists of a pencil, ink, pastels, gauche, acrylic and digital media fusion, to create a subversive African 'street' style, which he calls Guerill[art].

Early life

He was born and raised in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The 7th child in a family of 9, he became involved with art at the age of 4, by teaching himself how to draw from cartoon tv shows, comic books, and copying pictures of childhood idols, Diego Maradonna and Michael Jackson. His passion developed over the years into the creation of handcrafted comics in his primary school years, right through to high school where he took art classes at St. Patrick's Christian Brothers College, Bulawayo (CBC). He went on to create the cover art for acclaimed Zimbabwean poet John Eppel's novel, The Curse of the Ripe Tomato as well as chapter illustrations for the author's follow up book, The Holy Innocents.

Education

He left Zimbabwe for Johannesburg in 2005, to enroll in a 4 year Communication design course while working as a bar man and freelance artist/designer to pay his way through college. In 2008, he graduated from the University of Johannesburg with a BTech degree in Graphic Design.

Career

In 2009, he joined Cape Town based illustration studio Am I Collective as an intern and collaborated on projects for brands such as Fifa, Nike, Adidas, Smirnoff, HP, Shell and Audi (to name a few). During his time with the collective he was part of the illustration teams on some Cannes Lion winning campaigns. In 2010 he was involved in the "Voices in Freedom"poster exhibition/collection alongside activist artists Chaz Maviyane-Davies (Zimbabwe) Alain Le Quernec (France) as well as Yossi Lemel (Israel). The exhibition which was launched in Mexico, went on to exhibit around the globe including Japan, Poland, The U.S, parts of the South Americas, and in 2011,South Africa. He joined Johannesburg based Advertising agency Blackriver FC in 2011 where he currently works as an Art Director/Designer. In 2011 he formed part of the Piñatarama 2.0, (Art piñata) exhibition, alongside Dr Alderete (Argentina), Alberto Cerriteño (Mexico/Canada), Team-O (Mexico), Junko Mizuno (Japan) and 34 other artists at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City. He has also exhibited in group shows around South Africa as well as featuring in publications there.

In late 2010 Sindiso Nyoni developed R!OT, an alias that explores a subversive African 'street' style under which he has been operating as an artist after hours. He is currently collaborating on projects with Jo'burg based South African super group 'Big Fkn Gun'.