Mia Chaplin (b. 1990, SA) is a painter and sculptor who lives and works in Cape Town. Working in oil on canvas and paper as well as in bronze and plaster sculpture, her highly expressive works are characterised by their rich impasto surfaces and visible brushwork. Her loose, style of painting is intuitive, heightening the emotion of her pieces. Chaplin’s works are her impressions of the female experience in relation to sexuality, sensuality, intimacy and violence.
Since completing her BFA at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town in 2011, Chaplin has presented various solo exhibitions including Twister (2021) and Underbelly (2019), with No Man’s Art Gallery in Amsterdam as well as Swamp (2022), Mouth (2018), Under a Boiling River (2017), and Binding Forms (2016), with WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery in Cape Town. She has exhibited her work with NMAG on various pop-up locations such as Iran (2016) and Mexico (2022). She has also extended her painting practice into printmaking, hosting a mini-exhibition of monotypes from the series, The Making of a Sharp Blade (2017), in collaboration with Warren Editions, Cape Town.
Chaplin has completed artist residency programmes at PM/AM Artist residency, London (2023), Cité Internationale Des Artes in the Marais district, Paris (2018), Nirox Arts Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa (2016) and at OBRAS Foundation in Alentejo, Portugal (2015).
Her work has been placed in numerous international private and public collections such as Spiers Arts Trust (SA), Akzo Nobel Art Foundation (NL) and LAM Museum, (NL).
Mia Chaplin by Jonathan Kope
Publications
2020 Artist in Residence: Mia Chaplin, KRONE
2020 Painting a Practice: Mia Chaplin, Between 10and5, Layla Leiman
2019 Everyday Dissolution: Mia Chaplin’s ‘Mouth’, Artthrob Review, Isabella Kuijers
2018 Artforum Review, Sean O'Toole Critic’s Picks, Mia Chaplin
2017 Three’s Company, Nataal, Kerri von Geusau
2016 Collaboration with Warren Editions on a body of monotypes, Cape Town, SA
2016 Collaborated twice with Black River Studios, Cape Town, SA
2016 Collaboration with menswear brand Sol-Sol, based in Cape Town and Seoul
2016 5 Female Artists to know in Cape Town, interview with Steadfast Magazine, online
2016 Interview: House & Garden: The Artist Takeover, ‘Artists in Residence’, Jen Gouch, print
Residencies
2023 Fountainhead, Miami + Prize, USA AM/PM, London, UK
2021 No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2019 No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2018 Cite Internationale Des Artes, Paris, FR
2016 Nirox Arts Foundation, Johannesburg, SA
2015 OBRAS Foundation, Alentejo, PT
Education
2011 BFA Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, SA
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Held Tight, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2024 Cutting Silk, No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2023 Solo booth at Untitled Art Miami, WHATIFTHEWORLD, SA
2023 AM/PM Residency show, AM/PM, London, UK
2022 Artissima, (Best Solo Booth Prize), Turin, IT
2022 SWAMP, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2021 TWISTER, No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2019 Underbelly, No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2018 Mouth, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2017 Under A Boiling River, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2016 Binding Forms, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2014 Ceremony, Salon 91, Cape Town, SA
2011 No Place, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, SA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Bring on the Dancing Horses, No Man’s Art Gallery, NL
2025 Echos de Cezanne, Galilifet Aix-En-Provence, France
2025 The Many Within Her, Gillian Jason Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2024 True Colours, Kunstmuseum, Den Haag, NL
2024 The Light Between, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2023 Artissima, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2023 Oh so quiet, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2023 Dallas Art Fair, Texas, USA
2023 MIart Art Fair, Milan, IT
2022 PHEONIX Runway, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2022 No Man’s Art Gallery, Mexico City, MX
2021 Heath/Energy, Kummelholmen, SW
2021 RESTUDIO, Cunningham Contemporary, Johannesburg, SA
2020 Proxies – Gallery, Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2020 Matereality, IZIKO Museum, Cape Town, SA
2020 Art Rotterdam, No Man’s Art Gallery, Rotterdam, NL
2019 Outside, RBK Contemporary, New York, NY, USA
2018 Showroom, Galerie exterieure at Cite internationale des arts, Paris, FR