Bonnie Ntshalintshali

• Name — Bonnie Ntshalintshali • Born — 1967 • Birthplace — Winterton, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa • Died — 31 December 1999 • Education — University of Natal • Known for — Ceramics

Bonnie Mayvee Ntshalintshali was born on a farm in the Winterton district of KwaZulu-Natal in 1967. As a girl she survived polio and was considered unsuited to heavy physical farm work, so she was apprenticed to learn ceramics with Fée Halsted-Berning at Ardmore Ceramics. They first worked together in 1985. She had some further training at the University of Natal in 1990.

At Ardmore, Bonnie Ntshalintshali was at first an apprentice, but in time she and Halsted ran the studio more as partners. In 1988 Ntshalintshali won the Corobrik National Ceramics Award. She and Halsted were jointly named winners of a Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 1990. The catalogue for this exhibition, written by South African fine artist Andrew Verster, described Ntshalintshali's ceramics as follows: "The characters in Bonnie's work, the animals, the birds and the people are all individuals. One is attracted to them precisely because they are such powerful personalities." In 1991, she was invited to design fabric prints based on her ceramics for a festival in Grahamstown. Her ceramics were featured at the Seville Expo in 1992, at the Venice Biennale in 1993, and at the South African Bienniale in 1995. Ntashalintashali's designs often drew from Zulu folk culture or Biblical motifs. Her sister-in-law Beauty Ntshalintshali, her half-brother Vuzi Ntshalintshali, and another relative, Somandla Ntshalintshali, all joined her at Ardmore and also learned the shop's distinctive style.