Cyril Chiburre (b. 2000, BA Fine Arts, University of Johannesburg)
Cyril Chiburre is an emerging contemporary artist born in Mpumalanga, Hazyview. Cyril completed his degree in fine arts at the University of Johannesburg in 2023. He majored in printmaking and drawing; his work comments on social issues through storytelling and is influenced by the works of William Kentridge and Diane Victor.
Cyril has participated in group exhibitions with Art and Collect Gallery, the University of Johannesburg, the University of Pretoria, and White River Gallery. Most recently in 2024, Cyril had a joint solo exhibition with artist Simin Atwood at White River Gallery, entitled, The Unseen. As of 2025, Cyril was one of the nominated artists for a project to create art for the Great Hall at the University of Mpumalanga.
In 2021, Chiburre started photography and post-production and appeared in short films, and through that, Chiburre had a strong desire for storytelling through drawing and film. Chiburre’s work reflect on power dynamics in nature, social issues, corruption, war and comment on these issues. In his work he examine how we came to where we are. Cyril, a visual storyteller who utilize printmaking techniques and charcoal drawings to explore how our society has been shaped by complex issues like power dynamics, capitalism, and corruption. Cyril often use animals in his work as characters to narrate these stories, the aim is to spark a conversation about our past and present to help us understand or predict the possible outcome of the future by exploring the unexplored territory.
“When narrating my stories in my art, I use the forsaken storytelling that we got from our ancestors. My work is inspired by how these stories were portrayed to us through verbal storytelling, I take an allegorical approach in my work to comment on social issues.“ - Cyril Chiburre
