Jenkin van Zyl
Jenkin van Zyl is an artist and filmmaker based in London with a multidisciplinary practice comprising film, performance, writing and sculpture. Van Zyl’s work combines these disciplines in hallucinatory, immersive installations, typically centred around film, which give birth to fantastical communities inhabiting transient spaces: ghouls breeding cakes in aircrafts, inflatable beasts in a desert fortress, or rats writhing in love hotels. Beyond the screen, the protagonists and their worlds have a material legacy as “escapees”, in the form of sculptures and objects that pervade van Zyl’s oeuvre.
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Jenkin van Zyl: Dance of the Sleepwalkers
19 January - 9 March 2024Opening reception | Thursday 18 January 6-8pm Edel Assanti is pleased to present Dance of the Sleepwalkers, Jenkin van Zyl's second solo exhibition at the gallery. The show follows van...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl: Surrender
19 January - 4 March 2023Opening Reception | Thursday 19 January 6-8pm Jenkin van Zyl’s first solo exhibition at Edel Assanti transforms the gallery into an engulfing environment built around a new single channel film,...Read more
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Jenkin van Zyl in Dazed
'How the rat king influenced Jenkin van Zyl’s latest exhibition' by Patrick Sproull 24 October 202324 October 2023 American dance marathons, queer dance floors and Japanese love hotels: Surrender invites visitors into the ‘hellmouth’ of a giant inflatable rat. Surrender...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl at FACT Liverpool
'Surrender' from 20 October 2023 to 28 January 2024 13 October 202320 October 2023 Surrender (2023) invites you into Jenkin Van Zyl's psychotropic film-world centred around an endurance dance marathon, and the cryptid lore of the...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in TimeOut
'The Future of London Art: Jenkin van Zyl' by Eddy Frankel 11 October 202311 October 2023 Somehow, despite everything standing in its way, art is flourishing in London. We’ve got rising rents, exorbitant studio fees, a lack of...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl on Extraordinary Creatures
'Horror, Hedonism, and Queer World-Building: Jenkin van Zyl's Creative Journey' by Ceri Hand 1 October 202301 October 2023 In this episode of the Extraordinary Creatives Podcast, Ceri Hand speaks with visionary artist Jenkin van Zyl about his journey from suburban...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in FigureFigure
'Jenkin van Zyl in conversation with Marco Galvan' 31 July 202331 July 2023 Marco Galvan: Could you tell me about your background and how did you decide to study art? Jenkin van Zyl: As...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in ArtForum
'Surrender' by Gilda Williams 1 May 20231 May 2023 Nothing could have prepared me for Jenkin van Zyl’s extreme visual extravaganza, the nearly fifty-minute film Surrender, 2023. Not the enormous, room-size,...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in The White Review
'On the Altar of the Rat King' by Sam Moore 2 March 202302 March 2023 Walking into SURRENDER, Jenkin van Zyl’s installation in which a film loops on the wall of a mock-up of a motel room,...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in Art Monthly
'Jenkin van Zyl: Surrender' by Daniel Culpan 1 March 202301 March 2023 What happens if you take a troupe of rodent-humans, pump them with liquid stimulants and make them compete in a non-stop dance...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in FAD Magazine
'The Top 5 Art Exhibitions to See in London Ending This Week' by Tabish Khan 26 February 202326 February 2023 Tabish Khan the @LondonArtCritic picks his favourite top 5 Art Exhibitions to see in London ending This Week. Each one comes with...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in Frieze
'Jenkin van Zyl Demands Your Surrender' by Joe Bobowicz 31 January 202331 January 2023 The artist and filmmaker probes the slippery subjects of queerness and desire in his first latex-laden solo show at Edel Assanti, London....Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in Studio International
'The world has ended many times over’ by Joe Lloyd 26 January 202326 January 2023 The artist and film-maker guides us through his fantastical world of dancing rats, pneumatic tubes, dance marathons and inflatable hellmouths. Musophobes beware....Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in In Talks With
Jenkin van Zyl in conversation with Danielle Radojcin 26 January 202326 January 2023 Artist Jenkin van Zyl seeks to portray characters who find transcendence through the freedom of being able to be whomever they want,...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in The Guardian
'Jenkin van Zyl on his death-defying art: ‘Setting myself on fire was idiotic. But the shot is amazing’' by Hettie Judah 23 January 202323 January 2023 He makes films filled with gore, monsters and bizarre fetishes and looks like Mr Tumnus at a techno club. Could this prosthetics-wearing,...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in TimeOut
'Jenkin van Zyl: Surrender Review' by Eddy Frankel 18 January 202318 January 2023 Ever wanted to become so entwined with someone that you become one person? Rats know all about that desire. There’s the cryptid...Read more -
Jenkin van Zyl in i-D
'The queer artist exploring vore, the kink of being eaten alive' by Anastasiia Fedorova 6 December 202206 December 2022 Through inflatable latex sculpture, Jenkin van Zyl's Vore explores the liminal space between the human and the monstrous. In a windowless room...Read more