ARTIST PROFILE
​​Gordon Glyn-Jones is a Zimbabwean artist based in London. ​
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'I weave the magical essence of living things into visual fables.'
Gordon_Glyn-Jones_PortraitPhoto courtesy: Faridanifoto
​What is your work about? 
I weave the magical essence of living things into visual fables; binding the abstract with the organic. I fuse the grace and illustrative traditions of my Western heritage with the light, forms and animus of raw natural Zimbabwe.

Where does your art sit politically?
There seems to be a current  expectation that artists need to engage in a moral crusade to be taken seriously?
Very often the quality of the art-making suffers. I'm after something more nuanced and universal. I want to investigate truth through dedication to the work and avoid bland disposable propaganda. 

What drives your vision? 
I'm fascinated by how the human spirit and creativity can influence evolution. More than ever before, what we imagine today, can shape tomorrow’s realities. I feel that looping our curiosity and invention directly back into nature's observable rhythms is a healthy way to navigate this awesome responsibility. 

​How do you express these ideas?
Through drawing and music, I channel nature’s structures. Through intuition, rhythm, and improvisational memory, each piece organically evolves into a living entity. Daily drawing mimics the process of evolution: repetition, mutation, conglomeration and progress. The intention is to cultivate an unconscious visual language, like we do with handwriting or signatures. 

What form does your art take? 
I see creation as a dance between evolution and dissolution. This call and response, the dissolution and invention, is at the heart of every moment in the craft. I surf the tension between abstraction and real forms. I counterpoint gestural line-drawing with 3D light-modelling; using luminous colours, whilst anchoring them in organic textures and tones.
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​What traditions inform your work?
I respect the visual stylings of late 19th-century British, French and far-Eastern fairy-tale illustrators, specifically their ability to transport you to another world. However, the illustrative language is infused with the retinal memory energy, animus and light of my formative years in Zimbabwe. I see this as a kind of 'reverse-illustration'; where viewers are invited to generate their own narratives based on what they see. 

What shows do you have coming up? 
I do various group shows and often evolve new projects with other artists, curators and galleries. I'm currently engaged in a body of paintings, large drawings and accompanying research, for a Solo show in Soho, on November 26/27th, 2025. 

This interview appeared in TheSouthAfrican.com, Nov 2024.

| Education: Studied under Helen Leiros, Delta Gallery, Zimbabwe. BA(FA) Michaelis, Art School, University of Cape Town. 

| Teaching:Gordon is a drawing coach and about four times a year hosts drawing workshops & one-to-one art coaching. 

| Writing: He periodically writes about art, specifically supporting African art abroad and has edited and written for various travel & culture magazines internationally. (BBC / Art Africa/ Contemporary Art / Dazed).

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