Hylton Nel was born in Zambia but grew up on a cattle farm in the Karoo, and is now based in Calitzdorp. As a Fine Art student at Rhodes University, he was enthralled by the ‘beautiful things’ in the cabinet of curiosities assembled by the then head of the department, Brian Bradshaw. It included Greek terracotta figures and Chinese ceramics including a Tang dynasty horse and a Song brush pot. Nel experimented with techniques and glazes the studio of Jürgen Hamberger, a well-known ceramist who ran a studio in Grahamstown, and later completed a diploma in ceramics at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, in Belgium.

Nel went on to assemble his own collection of ‘beautiful things’, and developed an extensive knowledge of Chinese ceramics and art history more broadly, and this seems to have promoted his unique experimentation and sense of adventure with ceramic sculpture.

At the age of 80, he continues to produce a riotous miscellany of wonky vases, inscrutable felines, and higgledy-piggledy houses that hark back to eclectic sources in historical ceramic traditions, literature and popular culture. He is also the influential mentor of a new generation of talented young sculptors, including the late Nico Masemola.