Duncan Wylie (b. 1975, Harare) is a visual artist living and working between London and Paris.
Internationally renowned for his layered expressionist brushwork and mastery of the medium, Wylie creates multi-dimensional paintings that capture a sense of chaos, urgency, and resilience. Through gestural mark-making, vibrant colour, and dynamic composition, his work unfolds in an explosive matrix, where thin, transparent layers of oil paint echo a fragile perception of belonging—shaped by the trauma of displacement.
Wylie's complex narrative paintings have been exhibited at major institutions, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Palais de Tokyo, the Museum of Grenoble, the Modern Gallery Saarbrücken, the Pinacothèque in Luxembourg, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. His work is held in prestigious collections such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Le CNAP, FMAC, FNAC, MUDAM Luxembourg, the Museum of Grenoble, and the Pritzker, Guerlain, Colas, Perrier Jouët, and Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon foundations.
Immersed in art from an early age, Wylie was profoundly influenced by his mother, a curator at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. His formative training in drawing and painting with artist Helen Lieros led to his receipt of the National Schools of Zimbabwe Prize at just seventeen.
Drawn to the work of painters such as Manet, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Picasso—many of whom lived in France—Wylie moved there in 1994 to pursue his studies at the prestigious École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, an institution with a 350-year legacy. After passing its rigorous admission process, he trained under Jean-Michel Alberola and Pierre Buraglio, graduating with distinction in 1999.
"In his works, Duncan Wylie plays with contrasts and oppositions. He oscillates between construction and deconstruction, abstraction and figuration, order and chaos, or between emptiness and fullness—to reveal that behind one world, another awakens."
— Zoé Isle de Beauchaine, The Art Newspaper, March 2023
In 2025, Wylie marks 40 years as a painter, with a forthcoming publication on his work set for release in the fall.