Gary Van Wyk

Gary van Wyk completed graduate degrees in law, fine arts, and art history in South Africa. Active in the anti-apartheid Resistance Art Movement, he was exiled in 1986 to Zimbabwe, where he had been born. He completed his Ph.D. in Art History at Columbia University as a Fulbright Scholar, and received a Rockefeller Award for his research in South Africa and Lesotho. He has published and edited numerous articles and books mostly related to African art and culture, including Shangaa: Art of Tanzania, which the New York Times described as "stupendous." His African Painted Houses (Abrams) was a New York Times Book Review top architectural book for 1998. He edited the 56-volume series Heritage Library of African Peoples (Rosen) for young adult readers, and was commissioning editor of the 12-volume African Civilizations series (Franklin-Watts, 1998-99). He has curated several critically acclaimed exhibitions in South Africa and the United States, and "made New York history by integrating African art, old and new--into the fabric of the contemporary Chelsea gallery scene" as curator of Axis Gallery (NY Times, May 22, 2006). His most recent books are Pop Art: 50 Works of Art You Should Know (2013); József Jakovits: Surrealist, Primitivist, Kabalist (2014); and Our Anthropocene: Eco Crises (2018).