Gary van Wyk was born in Zimbabwe and completed graduate degrees in law, fine arts, and art history in South Africa. A leading figure in the anti-apartheid Resistance Art Movement, he was exiled in 1986. He completed his Ph.D. in Art History at Columbia University, NY, as a Fulbright Scholar, and received a Rockefeller Award for his research in Africa. He has published and edited more than fifty articles and books related to African art and culture, most recently Shangaa: Art of Tanzania, which the New York Times described as "stupendous." His African Painted Houses (Abrams) was a New York Times Book Review top architectural book for 1998, and Apartheid: Calibrations of Color (Rosen) received a Notable Book Award from the African Studies Association. He edited the 56-volume series Heritage Library of African Peoples (Rosen) for young adult readers, and was commissioning editor of the 12-volume African Civilizations series (Franklin-Watts, 1998-99). He has curated several critically acclaimed exhibitions in South Africa and the United States, and "made New York history by integrating African art, old and new--into the fabric of the contemporary Chelsea gallery scene" (NY Times, May 22, 2006). His most recent book is József Jakovits: Surrealist, Primitivist, Kabalist (2014).