Exploring Life & Business with Trevyn McGowan of Southern Guild

Today we’d like to introduce you to Trevyn McGowan.

Hi Trevyn, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I moved to London at 16 to pursue a career in acting, but after gaining experience renovating my own flats and buildings, I started Site Specific, an interior-design company based in Clerkenwell. We specialised in converting warehouses and office buildings, as well as retro-fitting the spaces for high-profile clients. My husband and gallery co-founder, Julian, worked as a set and costume designer at leading theatres across the UK and in New York from 1987 to 2003, at which point, after 20 years in London, we decided to return to South Africa. We settled in Wilderness on the Garden Route and made a new home for ourselves with our growing family.

In 2003, we founded SOURCE (now DNA – Design Network Africa) after we fell in love with the artisanal, handcrafted design being made all over Africa. DNA has grown into the leading agency for the design and export of handcrafted homeware from the continent. It is a separate company to Southern Guild and serves a completely different market, supplying retailers and boutique stores all around the world.

Then in 2008, we were witnessing what felt like a movement or upswelling of artistic expression in South Africa and further afield – we were (and continue to be) very inspired by the work we were seeing and wanted to create a conduit to share that with the world. We were motivated by the allure and uniqueness of South African art, as well as the down-to-earth craftsmanship that is synonymous with the country’s artists. We realised our calling lay in empowering artists to express themselves at the deepest level – and so Southern Guild was born.

Representing contemporary artists from Africa and its diaspora, Southern Guild’s programme furthers the continent’s contribution to global art movements. The gallery’s artists deploy representation as an act of agency against marginalisation, responding to the need for visibility, plurality, cultural legacy and the preservation of ancestral knowledge within today’s fractured socio-political climate.

We see the possibilities and often work closely with our artists to catalyse new work, act as a sounding board, and facilitate their ideas by helping them find fabricators and artisans. Our roots are in collectible design, but our mission evolved to encompass contemporary art as we witnessed the profusion of artistic energy around us.

The opening of our Los Angeles gallery in February 2024 marked a monumental moment for our community – we are the first gallery in South Africa to have a permanent gallery within the US landscape. This is the culmination of our years of contribution to the local art sphere. Our aim is to be permeable and inclusive, and to hold this gallery as a site for exchange, collaboration and community. We have found a wonderful synergy and warm sense of community in LA since opening last year. The interest from collectors, curators and museums, the camaraderie among the other galleries and neighbours in the district of Melrose Hill, and the genuine interest in our artists’ work has been very affirming.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I feel like with most things truly worthwhile, the road is never smooth. We’ve experienced a lot of wins, but in between, we’ve had our fair share of challenges. Growing a business and forging meaningful and lasting connections takes hard work, grit, time and perseverance – things that often mean long periods away from family, working across time zones and missing out on a lot. Apart from the personal sacrifices, there have been external struggles – various deadline delays, issues with the quality of products, Covid and its lasting effects, and of course, the changes faced overall across the art landscape/market. Despite the obstacles, we continue to push on and maintain our positivity, fuelled by the knowledge that the work being made by our artists is unlike that being made anywhere else in the world, both in its hand-crafted quality and narrative significance. This continent and the diverse profusion of creativity it has contributed to the world is only just starting to receive the recognition it deserves.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
From its inception in 2008, Southern Guild has embodied the spirit of a modern “guild” – a collaborative, artist-centric platform rooted in community, artisanal skill, and the production of work that explores what it means to be human. Originally known for pioneering the collectible design category across Africa and representing leading makers in ceramics, furniture, lighting and sculpture, the gallery has gradually expanded to champion contemporary fine art from across the African continent and diaspora.

The gallery’s programme is defined by deep engagement with ancestral knowledge, spirituality, identity, ecology and cultural memory, and by curatorial collaborations that cross disciplines to support artists holistically – from production to international presentation. Having galleries in both South Africa and the US sets up a symbolic and physical site of exchange between the two continents and an expanding creative horizon.

Our current exhibition in LA, titled <i>United State</i>, encompassing work by 30 African and American artists, embodies everything we stand for. Conceived as a living forum rather than a static presentation, the exhibition is an invitation for inclusion, empathy, kinship and exchange as a counterforce to the accelerating socio-political polarisation of our time. Bringing sculpture, painting, textile work, photography and collectible design into dynamic relation, <i>United State</i> asserts the radical need for plurality in a moment when perceptions of freedom and diversity are narrowing. The exhibition functions as a manifesto: a call to action to work together towards a shared humanity. The work on show crystallises the gallery’s evolution, welcoming a breadth of practices that affirm our position as a guardian of traditional knowledge systems and a platform for speculative, visionary futures. Amidst the vast heterogeneity of medium and perspective, there is a sense of possibility, of forging vocabularies that are disruptive and playful, urgent and necessary. The exhibition foregrounds artists whose trajectories resonate with the gallery’s values of cultural storytelling, craft as resistance, and authentic social resonance.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I’m a big believer in the mantra that “you make your own luck”. Of course, various things have to align for a business to be a success, but it’s also about dreaming big and then being prepared to work long hours, rolling up your sleeves to do whatever needs doing, and following through with consistency and determination to make that a reality. We have always been hungry to achieve and create a lasting legacy – so it’s been as much about creating opportunities as it’s been about the right ones presenting themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://southernguild.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southernguildgallery/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthernGuild

Image Credits
Installation view of 2025 group show ‘United State at Southern Guild Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Christopher Wormald/Southern Guild.

Southern Guild co-founders, Julian and Trevyn McGowan, at the opening of Southern Guild Los Angeles in February 2024. Image courtesy of Elizabeth Carababas/Southern Guild.

Installation view of Cheick Diallo’s 2025 solo exhibition, ‘Taama’ at Southern Guild Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Christopher Wormald/Southern Guild.

Artist Manyaku Mashilo at the opening of her 2025 solo exhibition, ‘The Laying of Hands’ at Southern Guild Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Christopher Wormald/Southern Guild.

Artist Zizipho Poswa at the opening of her 2024 solo exhibition, ‘Indyebo yawaNtu’ (Black Beauty) at Southern Guild Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Elizabeth Carababas/Southern Guild.

Southern Guild co-founder Trevyn McGowan with gallery director Lindsey Raymond and artist Zanele Muholi at the opening of ‘ZANELE MUHOLI’ in 2024. Image courtesy of Jorge Meza/Southern Guild.

Mmangaliso Nzuza, ‘Departure II’, 2025. Image courtesy of Lea Crafford/Southern Guild.

Installation view of 2024 group exhibition ‘Mother Tongues’ at Southern Guild Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Elizabeth Carababas/Southern Guild.