​​Short Bio - Diana Hyslop 2025
Diana Hyslop lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In her mid twenties she worked for Marvel Comics in London. On her return to South Africa Hyslop joined the film industry working on feature and documentary films. In the late eighties she studied painting at Bill Ainslie’s now legendary Johannesburg Art Foundation.
In the nineties she spent a year at the Santa Monica Fine Arts Studios in California before returning to Johannesburg where she spent time between filming and painting.
It was in 1998 that Hyslop committed to full time painting after having her first solo show at the AVA Gallery in Cape Town.
In 2002 she joined the Fordsburg Artists Studios (aka the Bag Factory Studios) as a permanent tenant artist and was an integral part of this downtown collective until 2020.
Largely informed by comics and film, Hyslop’s work explores magical realism and a universe of possibilities in which unexpected combinations are viable. She is interested in the duality of existence, a solitary/social phenomenon through which an eminent encounter can sometimes determine our pathways. And go beyond it.
Hyslop has exhibited locally and abroad, and has her work in numerous collections in South Africa. She has participated in international art workshops and residencies in France (CAMAC) Iceland Reyjavik (SIM) Uruguay Montevideo (CRUCES) Namibia (TULIPAMWE ) Kenya Lamu (KUONA) Botswana Gaborone THAPONG Malmesbury Cape TUPELO INTERNATIONAL.
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STATEMENT ‘25
My work explores the mystifying paradox between the poetic and the prosaic that many of us encounter in everyday life. The use of “magic realism” in my painting allows me to take ideas out of the ordinary and imbue them with a more transcendent meaning.
I’m interested in the quirkiness of the human condition, and reflect that in my work by juxtaposing images that don’t always relate to each other, thereby creating a different meaning.
I also use a lot of animal images because they evoke a natural empathy so that different experiences can be illuminated in a more creative way.
Painting is a process that frees me to express parts of myself that I have difficulty articulating. It is a passion that transports me into another realm, in which I am able to explore different realities. I think most of all it is a search for an inner freedom and vastness that I try to find in my mind.
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