Skip to main content

About

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.

New Artworks - Abstracts 2026

Abstract art challenges you to understand something different, and it convinces you that what you think isn't everything! The term 'abstract' is a limiting word for what I believe is everything; for me, there's everything in my paintings.

New artworks - Landscapes and Figures 2026

Artwork 2025

Figurative, Portraiture, and Landscape 2024

Landscapes 2023

Figurative and Portraiture 2023

Portraiture and Figurative 2022

Landscape, Nature 2022

Portraiture and Figurative 2021

Artwork 2020

Artwork 2019

Artwork 2018

Artwork 2017

Abstracts 2016

Portraits and Figurative 2016

Portraiture 2015

Figurative 2015

Figurative 2014

Portraiture 2014

Portraiture 2013

Figurative 2013

Artwork 2012

Collage and Oil 2011

Monoprints 2011