Frank Nthunya

Frank Sesing Nthunya was born In 1981 in Umtata in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, and is currently based in Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal. He received his early education in both the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape. He attended the Khathu College (FET) in the Northern Cape where he studied ceramics and then moved to KwaZulu-Natal in 1999, to follow his chosen vocation in ceramics.

In KZN he met Clive Sithole who introduced him to African techniques of pottery construction. In 2008-2009 he visited Sithole at his studio in The BAT centre, Durban, where he learnt these traditional Zulu hand built pottery techniques.

Nthunya’s best known ceramics are hand built, using a coiling technique. Each piece is burnished, covered with stain slip and then burnished again. The pieces are fired in the kiln and then smoke fired in a pit. He employs the same techniques used by ancient Africans, and takes inspiration from traditional work from Nigeria, South Africa, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

Nthunya has won two awards in the KZN Region Ceramics Southern Africa; in 2014 for the Best Form and was also placed second for the Expressive Award. His work is in the permanent collections of The Iziko Museum in Cape Town and The Pretoria Museum.