Marlene Dumas, a Dutch painter born in 1953 in South Africa, refuses to choose between her identities, embracing multiplicity through her art. Confronted with the rigidities of apartheid from a young age, she explores representation and identities through series of portraits created in ink and watercolor, often arranged in grids. Her works, in a neo-expressionist style, include thematic series such as "Black Drawings" (1991-1992) and "Young Boys" (1993).

Trained at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, and later at Ateliers 63 in Haarlem for painting, Dumas also pursued studies in art history and psychology. Her work questions female identities and gender relations within society, with pieces like "The Blonde" (1993) and "The Invitation" (2001).

Internationally recognized, she critiques the contemporary art world while continuing to innovate in drawing, painting, and collage techniques. Her participation in the 1995 Venice Biennale with works reinterpreting Mary Magdalene, and her series of "pin-ups" at the Stedelijk Museum, showcase an artist who blends sensuality and social critique with a touch of provocation. Her subversive oeuvre continues to be exhibited and celebrated in numerous institutions worldwide.