Floris van Zyl (born 1971, Bloemfontein) is a South African Abstract and Expressionist painter known for bold colour, visceral brushwork, and emotionally charged compositions. His work spans landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self‑portraits, all driven by a desire to deconstruct realism and rebuild it through expressive abstraction. Rooted in decades of experience in publishing, design, and communication, Van Zyl sees abstraction as “everything” — a way to push beyond what is seen and into what is felt. A Graphic Design graduate of the Tswane University of Technology (1993), he built a successful design studio in Gauteng before relocating to the countryside in 2009, where he now paints and farms with his partner. Since 2011, his work has been exhibited in Johannesburg, the Western Cape, and at the Pretoria Museum of Art, and has been featured in Visi, SLOW Magazine, Dossier, The SA Artist, as well as in newspapers, radio, and television.
