Mia Chaplin (b.1990 South Africa) 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 inlcuding Swamp (2022), Mouth (2018), Under a Boiling River (2017), and Binding Forms (2016), with WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery in Cape Town as well as Twister (2021) and Underbelly (2019), with No Man’s Art Gallery in Amsterdam. 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).

In 2022, Chaplin presented a solo booth at Artissima in Turin, Italy with WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa, and her works have been included in various group presentations at Art Joburg, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, as well as at Miart, Milan (2023).

Her work has been placed in numerous international private collections, public collections include Spier Arts Trust, South Africa, Lam Museum, Netherlands.