Gavin Younge

Gavin Younge works internationally as a sculptor, author, and curator. He attained an MA in Fine Arts in 1988 and is Emeritus Professor in Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. He is a past Director of the Michaelis School of Fine Art.

In 2012 he was awarded a UCT Creative Arts Award in recognition of the substantive and discursive contribution his work has made to contemporary art practice.

In 2011 he won the Handspring Puppet Company’s award for his work with Jane Taylor, and his sculptural work has been acknowledged in various publications on contemporary art including Williamson and Jamal’s book Future Present: Art in the new South Africa, Jill Bennett’s book, Empathic Vision – Affect, Trauma, and Contemporary Art and Maud de la Forterie’s essays “Deep” and “Skin”, published in French.

He has participated on two occasions at the Nirox Foundation Sculpture Park exhibitions, and on several exhibitions featuring large-scale sculpture organized by the Everard Read Galleries in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Recent solo exhibitions include his project using vellum that was shown in Paris and at Salses as part of the Monuments et Animaux cycle of exhibitions sponsored by the French Monuments Council.

His solo exhibition, Water Matters featuring folded metal sculptures and six ‘redrawn geographies’ was presented by Ilse Schermers Gallery during January and February 2016.

Education

• MA Fine Art University of Cape Town (1985 — 1988)
• Matriculated King Edward VII High (1960 — 1964)

Companies

• Emeritus Professor University of Cape Town (2012)
• Independent artist Gavin Younge Studio (1970)
• Professor and Head of Department Faculty of Humanities, University of Cape Town (1994 — 1999)
• Field Director, Picture Cape Town Getty Conservation Institute (1997 — 1998)
• Assistant lecturer University of Natal (1970 — 1972)