Sonwabiso Ngcai is a ceramic artist and lecturer from Buntingville, a rural village near Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. He holds a Diploma and BTech in Fine Art from Walter Sisulu University, both awarded cum laude, and a Master’s degree in Fine Art from the Vaal University of Technology. He is currently based in kuGompo (formerly East London), where he lectures in the Visual Arts Department at Walter Sisulu University.

Ngcai’s practice centres on ceramic sculpture, engaging material processes alongside questions of identity, history, and indigenous knowledge systems. He has taught at the Vaal University of Technology and Nelson Mandela University, and has contributed internationally as a visiting lecturer at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, in 2022. In 2025, he facilitated a ceramic workshop in Tanzania under the research theme Reinterpreting Maasai Objects and Masculinity, and in 2026, he participated in a conference in Paderborn (Neuenbeken), Germany, titled Mediating Mission Collections.

He has been recognised as a finalist in several major national competitions, including the Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards, Absa L’Atelier, Sasol New Signatures, and the PPC Imaginarium. He was runner-up in the PPC Imaginarium in 2017 and awarded Overall Winner in 2019. His accolades include Merit Awards from Ceramics South Africa (2021 and 2025), the Ceramic Excellence Award from Ceramics South Africa Eastern Cape (2022), the Eastern Cape Cultural Award for Best 3D Artist (2019), and the Eastern Cape Cultural and Heritage Award (2026).

Ngcai has presented solo exhibitions at GFI Art Gallery (2022) and at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda (2025). He has served on several adjudication panels, including Sasol New Signatures and the Eastern Cape Arts and Culture Awards, and was a judge for the Ceramics South Africa Corobrik Biennale. In 2025, he received two DHET research units for his creative output.