Persona Non Grata: An Exhibition of Poster Art by Sindiso Nyoni (R!OT)

Artivist/Untitled presents PERSONA NON GRATA

a solo exhibition of posters by Sindiso Nyoni, also known as R!OT.

About the artist

Born in Bulawayo and based in Johannesburg, Nyoni trained in advertising as an illustrator and art director. For over fifteen years he has turned that visual language on the stories advertising leaves out: the border, the massacre, the murdered activist, the ancestor no monument was built for. His posters have travelled from the streets of Johannesburg to the Vitra Design Museum and the Guggenheim Bilbao, and to poster biennials from New York to Zagreb.

The exhibition

Persona non grata is the name for the unwelcome one: the person whose papers are wrong. Every figure in this show was once called it. Fifteen works, hung across both floors of Artivist, unfold in three chapters:

Chapter 1 - Papers: the movement of people and the documents that decide who counts.

Chapter 2 - The United States of Africa: the pan-African idea and the figures who carried it.

Chapter 3 - New Heroes: the women who held the argument together, and the young who inherit it now.

Collectively, they ask what happens when advertising’s most persuasive visual language is used to remember rather than to sell.

Opening night: Thursday 12 November 2026

Doors open at 17:00. Join the artist in conversation, take a walkthrough of the show and enjoy music from the Artivist stage.

A signed, numbered opening-night print of Persona Non Grata (A2, edition of 50) is available on the night only.

Visitor information

• Venue: Artivist, 7 Reserve Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
• Exhibition runs: 12 November 2026 to end January 2027
• Age restriction: [18+]