Dumas was born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa and grew up in Kuils River in the Western Cape, where her father had a vineyard. Dumas began painting in 1973 and showed her political concerns and reflections on her identity as a white woman of Afrikaans descent in South Africa. She studied art at the University of Cape Town from 1972 to 1975, and then at Ateliers ’63 in Haarlem, which is now located in Amsterdam. She studied psychology at the University of Amsterdam in 1979 and 1980. She currently lives and works in the Netherlands and is one of the country’s most prolific artists. She is also widely regarded as one of the most influential painters working today.

1979 First Solo exhibition. Marlene Dumas, Galerie Annemarie de Kruyff, Paris

1992 First North American exhibition Insight, Axe-Néo-7, Hull Québec

1993 First United States museum exhibition Marlene Dumas, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia

1997 First Asian exhibition Young Boys – Part II, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo

2001 Marlene Dumas: One Hundred Models and Endless Rejects, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

2008 First South African exhibition. Intimate Relations, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg

2018 Myths and Mortals. David Zwirner Gallery, New York (cite: )

2020 Marlene Dumas: 25 years of collaboration, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp