Cyril Chiburre (b. 2000) is a contemporary artist born in Mpumalanga, Hazyview. Chiburre recently 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. Chiburre has participated in group exhibitions with the University of Johannesburg and the University of Pretoria; the most recent exhibition with the University of Pretoria was A(Gender) Matters Student exhibition, and he has exhibited with Art and Collect in 2021. 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. When narrating his stories, Chiburre use the forsaken storytelling which we got from our ancestors. His work is inspired by how these stories were portrayed to him through verbal storytelling, he takes an allegorical approach in his work to comment on social issues. To communicate his ideas in a way that would be understood by everyone. He then use a similar approach by using animals in his work to narrate his story. Chiburre looks at living in the era of the Anthropocene, how capitalism has led us humans to benefit from nature but nature not benefiting from us in return.
