About

Gordon Ross is an artist & designer living in Cape Town, South Africa. His work combines elements of Pop Art, Geometric Abstraction, and Illustration to create vibrant paintings and designs. Gordon has designed furniture, lighting, and textiles for companies in the USA, UK, Italy, and South Africa. His paintings are in private collections in the UK, USA, South Africa, France, Israel, and Brazil. His short films have been shown at festivals in the UK, USA, Germany, and South Africa.

Posters, Mugs, Bags, & Furniture available from: Society6

Clothing, Prints, Posters, and Products from: TeePublic

Available for painting and design commissions.

List of Artwork/Films/Exhibitions:

Super 8 movies. 1983-2010 filmed in Dundee, Edinburgh, London, Paris, New York & Tennessee.

Artwork. 1984-1988. Producing drawings, paintings, assemblages, wall hangings, screenprints, illustrated journals, photocollages, mail art, and mobiles. Dundee, Scotland

Outdoor movie projections. 1988, Dundee, Scotland.

Drawings and photocollages. 1989. Exhibited in group show at Lesbian and Gay Centre. Edinburgh.

 Nightclub Visuals. 1989.Created banners and artwork for Club UFO in Edinburgh.

Films & Installation. 1990. Super 8 film screening and inflatable sculpture installation shown at Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee, USA.

Films and Inflatable Installation for AIDS Response Knoxville, World’s Fair Park, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. 1990.

 Performance Movie Projection for rock band “Teenage Romance”. Knoxville, Tennessee. 1990.

Club Visuals/Environment. A ten-screen 20 meter wide slide/film/video installation, with inflatables, mobiles, shadow projections, and banners at the Living Room and Mercury Theater nightclubs in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. 1990- 1992.

Self-Published Magazines. “Ka-boom” and “Explodamatic USSR” self published photocopy magazine and colouring book. Knoxville, TN. 1991.

Short Video. Shot a biographic short video of Malory Bishop, a Knoxville drag queen. Knoxville. 1991.

Public Access TV show, “Gordon Ross’ Nothing Special”, Community Television Knoxville. Tennessee. 1991. Re-broadcast until 1997.

Mail Art collaboration with Russian art group “The Accidental Union of Unknown Artists”. London & St Petersburg. 1993.

Club Visuals/Environment. Multi-screen slide and film installations, inflatables, and mobiles at various nightclubs in London, including DNA at 100 Club, Bulita, & Prozac at Bar Rumba, London, 1994-1995.

Visual Design/Slide projections /Fashion Styling for a Schwarzkopf hair products promotional video. Knoxville, Tennessee. 1996.

Multi-screen slide/film/video installations at the Closet nightclub in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.1996-1997.

Multi-screen slide installations at Classics Nouveau clothing store in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.1997.

Paintings exhibited at Nautica’s flagship clothing store in Manhattan, New York. 1998.

Painting in permanent collection at HOMU (Homeless Museum) Brooklyn, NY. 1999.

Visual Design. Created slide projections, inflatables, mobiles, shadow projections, T-shirts, and performances for various nightclubs in London, including Dysfunctional Dandy at the Vauxhall Tavern, and Crash at Crash, London, 2000-2004.

Actor. Acted in a short film “Fountain” for HOMU Brooklyn, NY. 2003.

Founding Member of art group “Folly” London. 2005. Exhibited photocollages in “Folly” group shows at the Foundry, London. 2005.

Set Design, props, posters, and art direction for the Russian play “Mandate”. Queen Mary/University of London. 2007. Produced a journal of drawings, photos and collage during my language studies in St Petersburg.

Directed/filmed a short film about a trans-sexual friend from London called “Rita Says”, which was shown at the Berlin Art Fair 2010.

Designed posters and artwork for Green Party and various environmental campaigns. London. 2007-2014

Graphic design/visual design for the Market magazine, a business and culture magazine sold in the UK. London. 2011-2012.

Emigrated from London to Cape Town. October 2014.

Painting, drawing and mail art. Cape Town. 2015-2019.

Painting. Producing abstract paintings and map paintings as commissions for individuals and companies in Cape Town, London, and the USA. 2014-2020.

Artist Books. Produced hand-written multilingual dictionaries in the five languages.,Cape Town, 2014-2015.

Multi-screen slide & film installations at parties in Cape Town. 2016.

Invented the Gordian alphabet / writing system by combining features of Russian Cyrillic and Hindi Devangari. Produced drawings and paintings with writing in Gordian. 2016-2019.

Created printed textile designs for South African fashion label Ruff Tung. 2016. My designs were shown at Johannesburg Fashion Week 2016, PURE Fashion Fair London, and on Fashion One Television.

Designed printed textile designs for South African fashion label Beach Cult. 2016. My designs were shown at the Premiere Vision Fashion Fair in Paris. 2016.  

Art installation. Participatory mural & drawing sessions at Camp Gummi Bear at Afrikaburn 2016.

Art installation. I produced mobiles, drawings, painted cardboard cut-outs, and printed textile designs for an art installation/disco/tea party called “Tea & Sympathy” at Afrikaburn 2017.

Art installation. I produced mobiles, painted cardboard cut-outs, painted canvas backdrops, designed clothing, and showed my Super 8 movies from the 1980’s at Smokescreen, the little cinema in the desert at Afrikaburn 2018.

Launched “ideacircus” online clothing store. Launched online shop with a US company RageOn!, selling a range of digital printed clothing, sneakers, and home products, which are manufactured in Poland, China, and the USA. April 2018.

Published a Manifesto of GMA Art: Geometric Minimal Abstraction. and produced a number of paintings according to these principals, Geometric, Minimal, and Abstract. Cape Town, September 2018.

 University of Tennessee Archive. My 25 minute Super 8 films from the 80’s and early 90’s, are added to the UT Library Archive, as part of its holdings celebrating LGBT+ life in East Tennessee. 2019.

Launched www.ideacircus.net Website to show my work online, with links to my online stores. May 2020.

AMIA Conference (The Association of Moving Image Archivists / USA). October 2019. Asheville, USA. Excerpts from my short films, I made of me and my friends in Tennessee in 1990, were shown at the AMIA Conference as part of a presentation called “Queer Eye for the Archives: Empowering LGBTQ+ Communities in Tennessee“. The films were presented by Louisa Trott, Film Archivist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Map Paintings and Drawings. Paintings commissioned for clients in Cape Town, London, New York, Detroit, and Florida. March-November 2020.

Group exhibition at Institute Francaise du Cap in Cape Town. November 2020. I exhibited 4 paintings, including Flowers, and three geometric abstract paintings.Exhibition organised by Axis Art Gallery, Cape Town, and Nicolas Lehmann Art, Cape Town. November, 2020.

University of Tennessee. USA. October 2021. The short films that I made in 1990 in Knoxville were shown as part of a “Queer American History” course at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Solo exhibition at Institute Francaise du Cap in Cape Town. October 2021. I exhibited 30 paintings, hanging mobiles, and a room sized art installation. On the opening night I screend my short films from the 1980’s and the guests came as “living art” wearing my clothing and textiles designs.

Solo exhibition at Gallery One11 in Cape Town. June-August 2022. I exhibited 25 paintings, hanging mobiles, painted vases, and a room sized art installation. On the opening night the guests came as “living art” wearing my clothing and textiles designs.

December 2022. Designed a desk calendar for ImagineNation, a Cape Town brand consultants, to be a gift to their corporate clients.

March 2023. Mural painting. I painted a large mural in the lobby of the offices of Rothko Brand Consultants in Cape Town.