Marna Hattingh

South African artist, Marna Hattingh’s travels between a hybrid of fine art, literature and the complexities or contemporary life. She interrogates and articulates its collective emotions and has developed a highly unique and sought-after style, strongly influenced by an Asian sensibility and her experience as an illustrator, blending wry humour and social comment into playful palettes with a serious undertone. Drawing inspiration from an eclectic range including media, fashion, history and fictional novels, her finely drawn characters jump, dance and spin across timeless, patterned backgrounds. Each painting is extensively worked and contains its own complex narrative.

Her distinctive graphic style is deeply layered and functions as a hyper-textual visual language, which allows the viewer to be rewarded with an awareness of the poetic and lyrical within his/her own wilderness.

Hattingh graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in 2000 with a BA Fine Arts degree, and a post-graduate Honours degree in Illustration. Her work is held in collections across South Africa and England.