November 2026
Trevyn McGowan
“Could only this artist have made this work?”
— Trevyn McGowan
Interview by Elodie Goldberg Jacquemain
Elodie Goldberg Jacquemain: Congratulations on your new Tribeca gallery space — opening with solo shows by Mmangaliso Nzuza and Usha Seejarim feels like a real statement. For readers meeting Southern Guild for the first time, how would you introduce the gallery and its program?
Trevyn McGowan: Southern Guild is a contemporary art gallery founded in Cape Town in 2008 by my husband Julian and I. At its heart, it has always been about artists with singular voices: people whose work is culturally grounded, materially fearless, and deeply connected to who they are and how they see the world.
We work across painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, and mixed media, but we're not interested in defining the program by discipline. What connects the artists is the distinctiveness of their work and the rigor with which they pursue it. We are interested in artists who are continually testing the possibilities of their chosen medium and developing a visual language that is unmistakably their own.
Cape Town remains fundamental to who we are, and our Tribeca gallery gives us a permanent presence in New York from which to introduce these artists and ideas to a wider audience.
Trevyn McGowan. Photo by Erin Brady for Dan Bradica Studio & Southern Guild.
EGJ: I’d love to go back to the beginning. What were you doing before the gallery came into the picture? Do you come from an art background? What first pulled you toward this world?
TM: I started out as an actor in London and later moved into interiors and design, while Julian came from a theater and set design background. So, we had both spent much of our working lives immersed in visual culture and creativity before returning to South Africa in 2003.
Coming home was really the catalyst. We encountered this remarkable depth of creative talent and very quickly felt there were voices here with something important to contribute to the world, but without the infrastructure around them to do that at the level they deserved. Having spent so much time working internationally, we felt we understood something about how to build those bridges.
It became our mission. We began in design, working closely with makers and developing work with them, and that eventually evolved into opening Southern Guild in 2008.
Installation of Zizipho Poswa - iMbewu - June 26. Courtesy of Southern Guild.
EGJ: What led you to start Southern Guild back in 2008? What was the original vision?
TM: We could see people making work that didn't fit comfortably into the existing categories. It was functional but sculptural, rooted in craft but highly conceptual, and often very technically complex. There wasn't really a context for it in South Africa at the time, particularly at the collectible end of the market.
We wanted to give people permission to go further: to experiment with material and scale, to make one-offs and limited editions, and to pursue ideas without first asking whether there was already a market for them. We were also very conscious of not conforming to an outside idea of what African art or design was supposed to look like.
In those early years, that meant building much of the infrastructure ourselves – production, exhibitions, writing, photography, fairs, logistics, collector education, and museum introductions. So much has changed since 2008, but the underlying principle hasn't: our responsibility is to the artist and to the work.
Installation of Zizipho Poswa - iMbewu - June 26. Courtesy of Southern Guild.
EGJ: When you think about the artists you’ve chosen to work with over the years, what tends to pull you toward someone? Is there something you’re instinctively looking for?
TM: I often ask myself, “Could only this artist have made this work?” That's probably the simplest test. There needs to be a visual language so particular to that person that you couldn't mistake it for somebody else's.
There also has to be a foundation of excellence – in the labor, the process, the material intelligence, and the commitment to the work. We represent a number of photographers, for example, but each uses the medium in a completely different way. It's not the discipline that interests us; it's what that individual is doing with it.
And then there is the person themselves. We're drawn to artists who are very connected to themselves emotionally, psychologically, and intellectually, but who remain open to learning, change, and possibility. You have to be able to challenge one another and be surprised. At its best, it feels like we're on an adventure together.
Installation of Mmangaliso Nzuza - Ballad of the Peacock - April 24 2026. Courtesy of Southern Guild.
EGJ: The gallery has been through a few chapters — Cape Town, then Los Angeles, now New York. Looking back at the LA period, what stays with you from that experience? And what made New York feel like the right move, at the right time?
TM: LA was a beautiful landing ground for us in the US. We were very warmly welcomed, and it gave us time to find our feet – both culturally and in all the very practical realities of establishing a business on another continent.
It also allowed us to be physically available to people who previously hadn't been able to experience the gallery for themselves. People who might have encountered us at a fair could spend time with the work and understand the gallery more fully. We also met a lot of new artists who were able to see who we were and how we worked. That opened the program into a whole new arena of practices. We began to build a community around the gallery – including collectors, curators, museum directors, and writers – who have become strong supporters and advocates of our work.
LA prepared us for New York. By the time we found the Tribeca building, we knew much more clearly what we needed from a US gallery and what we wanted to contribute. We fell in love with the space immediately. New York is faster, more competitive, and more demanding, but that feels right for this stage of the gallery. There is a seriousness and curiosity here that suits us.
Trevyn and Julian McGowan. Photo by Erin Brady for Dan Bradica Studio & Southern Guild.
EGJ: I’m curious about the behind-the-scenes side of the gallery — the relationships and conversations with artists that people don’t see from the outside. How have those shaped the way you work?
TM: What the public eventually sees might be an exhibition or a finished artwork, but getting there can involve years of conversation, experimentation, failure, problem-solving, and trust.
We don't want to arrive with a predetermined idea of what an artist should make. Our job is to understand what they're trying to achieve and ask: what does this idea need in order to become everything it can be? Sometimes, that's about solving a production problem or finding a way to realize something at a scale they've never attempted. At other times, it might mean bringing in an external writer or curator or simply asking a question that shifts the work somewhere unexpected.
Those conversations are incredibly important. You have to earn the trust to say when you think something can go further – and equally be prepared for the artist to challenge you. Some of these relationships span many years, so inevitably we have changed one another along the way.
Portrait of Trevyn & Julian McGowan, Founders of Southern Guild. Courtesy of Southern Guild.
EGJ: Now that the New York chapter is underway, how is it going so far? What are you most excited about, and what’s your vision for the gallery going forward? Anything on the horizon you can share?
TM: The most exciting thing about New York is permanence. We're no longer arriving for a fair and disappearing four days later. Someone can discover an artist, come back, see the next exhibition, and meet us again six months later. That continuity allows for a completely different kind of understanding.
I'm also interested in what new representation can make possible. That might mean introducing an artist who is entirely new to our audience or working with someone who is already established and recognized but presenting their work in a different way. I don't think representation should mean repeating what has already worked. It should provoke and propel everyone involved.
We're going to be spending more time in Europe and Asia and introducing the gallery to audiences there, while continuing to build what we've established in the US and South Africa. We also have some new artist announcements coming, which I can't share just yet.
I don't see that as expansion for its own sake. The aim is to keep opening up new possibilities for the artists we work with, and to make sure we're still curious enough to learn from what comes next.
Cape Town