Denzel ‘Denzo’ Nyathi is a passionate designer, writer, curator and creative. He obtained his Honours equivalent Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design from the Rhodes University School of Journalism. Having had his educational start in design in a journalism space, the need to combine effective communication with artistic expression has never been lost on him. Keeping that in mind, his philosophy of art – and life in general – is one which constantly comes back to the fact that we are a social people. Our lives and our work exists in a society, and should speak to and with that society, for the benefit of many.

He approaches curation with the same design sensibilities that he approaches designing a magazine with. This relationship between multiple elements, such as image, text and space. Within that space, how are we made to feel? What is the golden thread with which all these possibly unrelated works are bound? Those are the questions which move the work.

Before dipping his toes in the business of curating, Denzo worked for many years in the field of art journalism and criticism. Writing for major local publications such as Bubblegum Club Magazine and Mail&Gaurdian, he has also written for the National Arts Festival (2020, 2022) and for the journal Something We Africans Got, run from France.

Having studied and practiced Visual Arts, Contemporary Dance, Creative Writing, Drama and Design, the throughline in Denzo’s professional and personal work is an admiration for the ways all the disciplines of art shine a light on the kaleidoscope of our soul.