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Gavin Jantjes

Gavin Jantjes

Title
Honorary Doctor
Person Type
Honorary
Gavin Jantjes

Biography

Honorary Doctor

When UAL was known as the London Institute, Gavin was its first Black full-time senior lecturer in Fine Art, lecturing on painting and visual culture. He developed the Institute's policy for diversity and wrote the national Cultural Diversity policy for the Arts Council of Great Britain.

He was exiled from South Africa, his place of birth during the apartheid years and spent a great part of his professional life around Europe.

Gavin's work is often referenced in discussions about apartheid, cultural reciprocity and freedom of expression. He has worked as an artist, activist, educator, curator, historian and artistic director around the world, exhibiting internationally in major institutions including Tate Gallery and the V&A in the UK, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the South African National Gallery and The National Museum of World Cultures in Amsterdam.

Gavin has also received numerous commissions from the United Nations Commission on Apartheid, the UN Refugee Council and the Nobel Peace Center, and is currently working on his first retrospective that will open at the Sharjah Art Foundation in the UAE in November 2023.