Marlene Dumas (b.1953, Cape Town, South Africa) is a painter, living and working in Amsterdam, Holland. Dumas was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Antwerp. She also holds degrees from the University of Cape Town, from Ateliers 63 in Haarlem and the Institute of Psychology, University of Amsterdam.
Dumas explores the complexities of identity and representation in her work. Through a vast archive of source material; newspaper clippings, historical documents and media to personal polaroids, she reframes and closes in on the subject of the human body, to bring emotion to the surface, the original source becomes abstracted, gestural and fluid. In her work, the body is a contested site, exploring sexuality, race, guilt, innocence, violence and tenderness.
