Earth, Fire, Spirit: The Brilliance of IMISO Ceramics and its Visionary Founders

In the heart of Cape Town, amidst the pulsing energy of South Africa’s creative capital, sits a studio that hums with ancestral memory and bold innovation. IMISO Ceramics, founded by master ceramicists Andile Dyalvane and Zizipho Poswa, is a living archive of African identity, spirit, and craftsmanship.

Their legacy in clay. Photo Credit: IMISO.

To speak of IMISO is to speak of legacy in clay. These are not simply vessels. They are ritual objects. They are cultural memoirs. They are contemporary totems that hold space for African voices in global design conversations; with dignity, poetry, and a reverence for the land and people from which they are born.

The Origins: Soil and Story

IMISO is a name derived from the Xhosa word “ngomso”, meaning “the future”. It was birthed in 2005, a period where African design was often still seen through a Eurocentric lens. Founders Andile Dyalvane and Zizipho Poswa, both raised in rural Eastern Cape, brought their deep technical prowess as well as an unshakable commitment to storytelling rooted in Xhosa cosmology, ritual, and symbolism.

Found in the creative hub of Cape Town's Biscuit Mill. Photo Credit: IMISO.

Andile and Zizipho met while studying at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (now Nelson Mandela University), where they both majored in ceramic design. Their paths merged in a shared desire to translate indigenous African knowledge systems into a globally relevant design language, without dilution or apology.

They established IMISO in Cape Town’s Biscuit Mill, creating a studio space that quickly became a cultural landmark, attracting collectors, curators, and creatives from around the world. But what they were building was not just a business. It was a movement.

The Artists: Two Visions, One Purpose

Andile Dyalvane is globally renowned for his monumental sculptural works that channel the sacred geometries of isiXhosa traditions; scarification, healing rites, land rituals, and ancestral callings. His iThongo (ancestral dreamscape) collection, presented at Southern Guild in 2020, featured large-scale ceramic thrones inscribed with Xhosa glyphs. Each piece carried a word, not in English or design jargon, but in isiXhosa, asserting the presence of language, memory, and spirit in the heart of design.

A creative institution in his own right. Photo Credit: IMISO.

Dyalvane’s work has been exhibited at institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Vitra Design Museum in Germany, and Design Miami. His pieces are collected by major private and public collections globally. Despite his acclaim, Dyalvane has never strayed from his grounding principle: “We are spiritual beings. My clay work is a form of prayer.”

Zizipho Poswa, equally commanding in her artistry, brings a feminine power and matrilineal reverence to the IMISO canon. Her bold sculptural vessels often reference Xhosa hairstyles, rituals of womanhood, and agricultural practices carried out by generations of rural African women. Her series uBuhle boKhokho (Beauty of Our Ancestors), for example, draws inspiration from the elaborate traditional hairstyles worn by Xhosa women, transforming them into towering clay monuments that are both avant-garde and deeply rooted.

African heritage and stroytelling in every piece. Photo Credit: IMISO.

Her latest body of work, iLobola, reinterprets the practice of bridewealth (lobola) as a celebration of feminine agency and cultural continuity, rather than commodification. Her pieces are brightly glazed, unapologetically large, and almost regal and have earned her solo shows at galleries like Galerie56 in New York and a growing collector base that includes design royalty such as Lenny Kravitz and Kelly Wearstler.

Together, Dyalvane and Poswa form a rare creative duet: masculine and feminine, earthy and celestial, ancestral and futuristic. They do not replicate African tradition for the sake of nostalgia — they reimagine it as living, breathing, global design.

IMISO Today: Global Stage, Local Soul

Operating out of Cape Town but drawing from Xhosa cosmologies and rural heritage, IMISO has become a symbol of African design excellence. Each piece is handcrafted, often using coiling, hand-pinching, and slab-building techniques, with clay sourced from local South African suppliers. No two pieces are the same, a quiet rebellion against mass production and cultural homogenisation.

Individual, unique and hand-crafted perfection. Photo Credit: IMISO.

IMISO has participated in international design fairs and biennales, with works exhibited at PAD London, Salon Art + Design New York, and Design Miami/Basel. Their pieces are housed in institutions such as the National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian) and are routinely featured in publications like Architectural Digest, Wallpaper, and Elle Décor.

But despite the fame, IMISO remains deeply committed to uplifting African artists. Their studio mentors emerging ceramicists, fosters community engagement, and continues to centre indigenous knowledge and language in the creation process.

Final Thoughts: A Beacon of African Brilliance

In an era where “Afropolitanism” can sometimes be reduced to surface aesthetics, IMISO remains a sacred site of cultural depth. It asks big questions: What does it mean to remember? What does it mean to belong? What happens when clay becomes scripture?

Understated luxury in every piece. Photo Credit: IMISO.

Andile and Zizipho do not just make ceramics. They channel ancestors, excavate language, celebrate femininity, and challenge colonial narratives through the very alchemy of earth and fire. They remind us, gently, powerfully, that African excellence is not emerging. It has always been here. Rooted. Brilliant. Revolutionary.

“Our stories are not lost. They are embedded in the soil. My work is about remembering.” – Zizipho Poswa