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Andile Dyalvane wins the 6th edition of the Officine Saffi Award
29 Sept 2026 (3 min) read
Andile Dyalvane has been named the winner of the 6th edition of the Officine Saffi Award, becoming the first African artist to win the international competition, a biennial prize dedicated to contemporary ceramics.
More than 1,000 applications from 41 countries across five continents were received, before the 28 finalist artists were selected. The international jury awarded the Main Prize to Dyalvane for his work iThwasa (The One Who is Blossoming), created together with his wife and creative partner, Nkuthazo Alexis Dyalvane. The formal and symbolic language, as well as the work's exceptional presence, speaks directly to the theme of this edition: Forms of Belonging. Rooted in ritual and in a deep bond with community, iThwasa takes on the presence of a body: a container of memory, identity and lineage. Surreal and quietly unsettling, it appears at once deeply grounded in reality and otherworldly; both ancestral and contemporary. The work affirms the ability of ceramics to hold collective memory and a sense of belonging that is at once personal and shared, and will become part of the Fondazione Officine Saffi Collection.
“Ceramics retains a quality that feels especially valuable today: at a time when everyday experience is increasingly mediated by the hyperreality of communication, it keeps alive the relationship between human gesture and material”, says Laura Borghi, President at Officine Saffi. She continues: “To engage with ceramics and support artists’ research is to preserve a tangible dimension of encounter - one that can continue to help us navigate the world”.
The work of the winners and other finalists come together in the group exhibition Forms of Belonging, on show at the Foundation’s venue at Via Niccolini 35A in Milan until November 13, 2026 (free admission). Each explores the human need to belong, reflecting on how objects, gestures, rituals and memories can shape spaces of recognition and connection. Functional objects, sculptures, installations and narrative works reveal the diversity of contemporary ceramic practice across different geographies and cultures. The selection is also distinctly intergenerational, bringing together artists at different stages of their careers and creating a dialogue between emerging perspectives and established practices.
See the full list of featured artists below:
Marten H. Anderson (Germany); Mel Arsenault (Canada); Arun Baburaj (India); Jonathan Baldock (United Kingdom); Gianluca Brando (Italy); Soledad Christie (Chile); Phoebe Collings-James (United Kingdom); Tomás Díaz Cedeño (Mexico); Andile Dyalvane (South Africa); Sean Gerstley (USA); Benedikt Hipp (Germany); Cody Hoyt (USA); Samantha Kerdine (France); Pan Loong (China); Corwyn Lund (Canada); Gerald Mak (Hong Kong); Agalis Manessi (Greece); Takumi Morozumi (Japan); Antoine Moulinard (Belgium); Bisila Noha (Spain / Equatorial Guinea); Trude Westby Nordmark (Norway); Ornaghi & Prestinari (Italy); Marta Pierobon (Italy); Yaerin Pyun (Republic of Korea); Coline Rosoux (Belgium); Emily Stapleton-Jefferis (United Kingdom); Krzysztof Strzelecki (Poland); and Flávia Vieira (Portugal).