Gavin Jantjes is a South African painter, curator, writer and lecturer. His painting and multi-media practice is rooted in his experience as anti-apartheid activist in the 1970’s.
He was a council member of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1986 to 1990. During this time, he was responsible for the development of the Arts Council’s policy on cultural diversity set out in the report ‘Toward Cultural Diversity’. In 1992 he was the Arts Council’s consultant for the creation of Iniva and coordinated the ‘New Internationalism’ symposium for Iniva with the Tate Gallery in May 1994.
His essays and lectures have been published in many national and international publications and art journals. His curatorial research on internationalism has shaped the program at Henie Onstad Art Centre and is outlined in A Fruitful Incoherence: Dialogues with Artists on Internationalism published by Iniva London (1998).
His work has been exhibited at Dak’art Biennale, Dakar (2018), Oslo Kunstforeinig, Norway (2017), The British Museum, London (2016), Centre for Photography, New York (2013), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2004 -2005), and recently included in the group exhibition ‘The Place is Here’, South London Gallery, London (2017).
He completed his studies at Michaelis School of Fine Art in 1969. A year later, he left South Africa on a scholarship to the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, in Hamburg, where he remained until 1982, choosing not to return to apartheid South Africa.
Jantjes lives and works in Oslo, Norway.