Duncan Wylie (b. 1975, Harare, Zimbabwe) is a visual artist living and working between London and Paris. He is internationally recognised for his layered expressionist paintings, in which his technical skill, gestural brushwork, and bold colour use stand out. His works unfold through complex narratives and dynamic compositions, constructed from successive transparent layers of oil paint. Evoking a sense of instability, urgency and resilience, Wylie’s practice engages with themes of displacement, belonging and memory, where figuration and abstraction are held in productive tension.
Wylie has exhibited at major institutions including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Palais de Tokyo, the Museum of Grenoble, Modern Gallery Saarbrücken, the Pinacothèque of Luxembourg, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. His works are part of important public and private collections, including 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.
Wylie began formal training in drawing and painting under artist Helen Lieros. In 1992, at the age of seventeen, he won the National Schools of Zimbabwe Prize. Inspired by painters like Manet, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Picasso, he moved to France in 1994 to study at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He trained under Jean-Michel Alberola and Pierre Buraglio, graduating with distinction in 1999. Wylie became a French citizen in 2005.
Reflecting on his work, Zoé Isle de Beauchaine writes, "In his works, Duncan Wylie plays with contrasts and oppositions, between construction and deconstruction, abstraction and figuration, order and chaos, revealing that behind one world, another awakens" (The Art Newspaper, March 2023).
In 2025, Wylie marked twenty years as a painter with his first major monograph, Multiple Realities. In April 2026, Duncan Wylie presented at Art Cologne: Palma Mallorca. Additional exhibitions included La vie climatique. Histoires sensibles des collections privées – Triennale De leur temps #8 (4 April – 20 September 2026, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Marseille, Marseille, France, organised by ADIAF); AFRICA LEGACY (4 September – 1 November 2026, Espace Vanderborght, Brussels, Belgium); and Tell Me Where Home Is (19 September 2026 – 17 January 2027, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany. Looking ahead, Wylie will be presenting his work at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London taking place from 15 October to 18 October 2026.