Simon Back

Simon Back is a prominent contemporary artist from Zimbabwe.  His influences from Western art movements have ranged from the Abstract Expressionists of the 1950’s to the work of Joseph Beuys. That being said, his primary influence has been the environment of his youth. A visible recurring theme throughout his work is the organization and creation of space, an element born from the clean expansiveness of Africa. Against a backdrop of the Zimbabwean civil war, seemingly calm distant plains served to conceal a world of hostility and mutilation and the same is still true today.

After studying Fine Art in Cape Town, Simon returned to Zimbabwe to teach art whilst developing his own evolving visual. Since 1996 Simon has been living on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius with his wife and daughters, working from his studio on the west coast.

Simon Back’s work is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, as well as in private collections throughout the world. Back has exhibited in New York, Europe and Mauritius.