Boemo Diale (b. 2000, Johannesburg, RSA ) is a multi-disciplinary artist who grew up navigating complex racial and socio-political post apartheid structures in Rustenburg, Mafikeng and in the suburbs of Johannesburg. As an exploration of identity, generational trauma, dreams and manifestations, the artist’s practice is both highly personal and speaks to the broader cultural inheritance of South African women.
Diale’s visual narration takes on a dream-like articulation, her figures often appear caught within the confines of a vessel or pushed up against the borders of her painted surface. Voluptuous obsidian bodies and more traditional feminine forms take turns resisting against and then complying with the limitations of her iridescent primordial environments. Tropical silhouettes and vivid graffitied universes merge with Diale’s playful, bright and layered use of paint, however beyond the lighthearted immediacy of her work lies a fierce questioning of her sense of place and ability to effect change through her art.
Diale’s work on film and on canvas is strongly impacted by her desire to connect with her maternal lineage and tell the inter-generational story of African women. Diale is able to introduce representations from her personal family archive into the whimsical interior scenes, creating a type of push-and-pull between the artist’s reality and her envisaged world.
Boemo Diale – Curriculum Vitae
Select Solo Exhibitions
2026 So quick the crocodile has eaten the sun, kumalo | turpin, RSA
2025 Tswala Gate, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Cape Town, RSA
2024 The Orange Tree of Lemenong - Everard Read, Cape Town, RSA
2023 No Matter How Far I Run - Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johanneburg, RSA
2022 Can I Play? - David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, RSA
2021 Pink Room - P72 Projects, Johannesburg, RSA
2021 Permaculture - Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, RSA
Select Group Exhibitions
2026 gender/genre, kumalo | turpin, Johannesburg, RSA
2026 department.01, Latitudes Centre for the Arts. Johannesburg, RSA
2025 South African Artist in New York | David Krut Projects x Kalashnikovv Gallery, New York, NY, US
2024 Refuse the given world, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Cape Town, RSA
2023 Hiatus - Ebony Curated, Cape Town, RSA
2023 X - A Decade of Kalashnikovv Gallery - Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, RSA
2023 All That She Carried - Latitude Center for the Arts, Johannesburg, RSA
2023 Winter Show - Everard Read, Cape Town, RSA
2023 Cubicle Series - Everard Read, Cape Town, RSA
2023 What’s the Word? Reading Text in Print-based Art - David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, RSA
2022 Between Image and Text - The Gallery, Johannesburg, RSA
2021 RE-FORM - The Gallery, 44 Stanley, Johannesburg, RSA
2021 Blue Tape Series #2 - P72 Projects, Johannesburg, RSA
Select Fairs
Untitled Art Miami, FL, USA: 2024
1-54 New York, New York City, NY, US: 2025 / 2026
1-54 London, Somerset House, UK: 2025 / 2024
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, RSA: 2026 / 2025 / 2024
Latitudes Art Fair, Johannesburg, RSA: 2026 / 2025 / 2024
FNB Art Joburg, Johannesburg, RSA: 2025 / 2024 / 2023 / 2022
Awards and Residencies
Tomorrows/Today Curated Section Award Winner: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, 2024
Swatch Watch Residency, Shanghai, China: 2025
