Dumile Feni

Dumile (1942-1991) began to show a real interest in Fine Art.

He visited an exhibition of Boboreki's sculpture; one of the first exhibitions he had ever seen. He wanted to meet the artist and went to Gallery 101 in Johannesburg to try and find him. There he met the director of the gallery, Madame Haenggi, who was willing to see the young artist's work. After showing her some of his small sculptures and drawings, Dumile was offered a contract with the gallery and his first solo exhibition.

In 1986 he was working on a major exhibition entitled South African Exile that was to include 200 drawings ranging in size from 10 x 18 inches to 9 x 30 feet, as well as 150 sculptures.

South African Justice Albie Sachs followed Dumile's career since first meeting him in London, and was very fond of the artist's 'deep romanticism.' "It was all in the form, the shape, and the delicacy of representation that made me feel that he was not exploiting hardship, not exploiting nudity and not exploiting Africanness to make a point.

He is saying something about humanity, the humanity that he knows: an African humanity. It was the sort of thing in the face of which I wanted to weep and to smile at the same time." While looking for jazz albums at Tower Records in New York, Dumile suffered a fatal heart attack.