About the artist

Diana Hyslop resides and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. In her mid-twenties, Hyslop worked for Marvel Comics in London before returning to South Africa, where she entered the film industry, contributing to both feature and documentary films. In the late 1980s, she studied painting at Bill Ainslie's, now renowned Johannesburg Art Foundation, followed by two years at Unisa.  During the 1990s, she spent a year at the Santa Monica Fine Arts Studios in California before coming back to Johannesburg, balancing her time between filming and painting. It was in 1998 that Hyslop dedicated herself to full-time painting after having her first solo exhibition at the AVA Gallery in Cape Town. In 2002, she joined the Fordsburg Artists Studios (also known as the Bag Factory Studios) as a permanent tenant artist.

Influenced by comics and film, Hyslop’s work explores magical realism and a universe of possibilities in which unexpected combinations are viable, all co-exist, and where anything can happen at once. She is interested in the duality of existence, a solitary/social phenomenon though which an eminent encounter can sometimes determine our paths.

Hyslop has exhibited both locally and internationally, with her work included in numerous collections across South Africa. She has also participated in international art workshops and residencies in Iceland, France, Uruguay, Lamu, Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia. For Hyslop, painting is a liberating process that allows her to express aspects of herself that are hard to articulate. It is a passion that transports her into another realm, enabling her to explore different realities. Ultimately, she views it as a quest for inner freedom and vastness that she seeks in her mind.