South-African artist, born in Cape Town, who later also adopted Portuguese nationality. Studied at Oxford University (1986-89), at the Fine Art Parsons School of Design, in Paris (1989-93) and at the Chelsea College of Art, in London (1994-95). First one-person shows, London (1996 and 1998) and in Milan (1997). The sugar-sweet little girls, painted in candy colours, share the disturbing nastiness of Paula Rego's infants. All her subjects are female between the age of three and eight. She starts by photographing them with a polaroid, which has the tendency to produce both blandness and distortion, then paints them wet-on-wet without making adjustments. In place of innocence, in their faces, there is a mixture of glazed ecstasy and sadism. It comes as no surprise that Nicky Hoberman cites her influences as Cindy Sherman and Diane Arbus. In 1996 she participated in several group exhibitions in London (Whitechapel Art Gallery and Jason & Rodes), in 1997, in the exhibition My Little Pretty at the Chicago Contemporary Art Museum and, in 1998, again at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.
