Errol Theunissen
University: Self-Taught
New Blood Art Commentary
Spotlight 2026
Spotlight 2025: Errol Shows Solo
Spotlight 2024: A Rising Talent - featured by Whitechapel Gallery
Errol Theunissen is a self-taught painter and illustrator, born in Zimbabwe and now based in Middlesbrough. After severely injuring his spine and legs in a motor vehicle accident in Zimbabwe, painting became central to his recovery and to processing the grief of losing his friend Mike in the same accident.
What began as a private and necessary practice has since found increasing public recognition. Theunissen’s work has been selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, shortlisted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026, included in Whitechapel Gallery’s First Thursdays programme, and acquired through The Manchester Contemporary Art Fund for Manchester Art Gallery’s collection. Most recently, his painting Radio was displayed at Manchester Art Gallery alongside works by L. S. Lowry.
There’s a tenderness in Middlesbrough-based, self-taught artist Errol Theunissen’s work that’s hard to describe but instantly felt. The figures are curled under blankets, stretched across blue sofas, held inside a gentle, safe domestic atmosphere. Embodied painting with folk qualities, colour handling and compositional control that feel contemporary. The children and animals aren’t performing for us. They’re simply there, inside a moment of closeness, where nothing needs to be explained.
The pleasure in Errol’s works is quiet and physical. Crisps, cartoons, pizza, a paddling pool. A dog pressed against your ribs. The kind of domestic safety that builds slowly, day after day, until it becomes a world. The emotional density of being safe, where the body is supported and nothing has to be said.
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Guest Curator - What Artists Like 2
Notable Achievements 2023
Read Errol's guest curation for What Artists Like #2
Artist Statement
l mainly paint in oil. I often use situations in my environment, home, and community as my subject matter. I do not feel I need to go searching for inspiration or beauty, but I seeks it in his day-to-day surroundings, my own everyday experiences, my memories of Africa and stories I have heard or photos I have seen relating go my interesting family history. I also include animals in some of my work. The relationship between humans and animals has a special place in my practice as I am aware of the importance of animals and the benefits of our relationships with them in this complex world, we live in. It is as if I capture beautiful moments between people or people and animals and transfer these moments from his mind to canvas. I use a bright colour palette in my work which gives vibrancy and life to my paintings which often tell a story. Despite now living in the U.K. I am still closely linked to Africa through my use of colour and sometimes my subject matter.