Ardmore, the now famous ceramic centre in KwaZulu Natal, is where Bonnie Ntshalintshali was born in 1967. In 1985 she started to work as a studio assistant to Fee Halsted-Berning and quickly showed ability in sculpture and painting.

In 1988 she received the Corobrik National Ceramic Art Award and in 1990 she and Halsted-Berning were joint winners of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award. That year she studied at the University of Natal.

Her complex pieces are constructed by coiling or building from solid forms. Fired to 1200 degrees, the work is then decorated in her distinctive rich style. Her early mission school education inspires the visual retelling of Bible stories in her hallmark narrative stacking of elements - or "vertical storytelling" in which personal imaginative response to western imagery combines with a strong Zulu tradition.

Collections: SA National Gallery, Durban Art Gallery, Tatham Gallery, Pietermaritzburg, Johannesburg Art Gallery and that of UNISA.

Exhibitions: 1992 she exhibited at the Seville exhibition in Spain, in 1993 at the Venice Biennial and in 1995 at the Johannesburg Biennial.