Gavin Jantjes (born 1948 in District Six, Cape Town) is a South African painter, curator, writer and lecturer.
He left apartheid South Africa in 1970 on a DAAD scholarship to study at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg between 1970 and 1972.
He worked as a consultant visual campaign director for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1978 to 1982.
He became artistic director of the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Hovikodden, near Oslo in 1998 and curated one person exhibitions there of Gordon Bennett, Yinka Shonibare, Susan Hiller, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Shirin Neshat, Marlene Dumas and Carlos Capelan.
One man shows of work by Gavin Jantjes include: Jantjes’ work in is the collections of Tate Britain, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Arts Council Collection; Wolverhampton Art Gallery; Coventry City Museum; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. A Fruitful Incoherence: Dialogues with Artists on Internationalism / [edited by Gavin Jantjes in association with Rohini Malik, Steve Bury and Gilane Tawadros] London: INIVA, 1998.