Oliver Scarlin is a South African artist working primarily in painting and drawing. His practice engages with the history of representation and the charged landscape of contemporary South Africa — works that are formally rigorous yet deeply personal, navigating between abstraction and figuration with careful deliberation.
Scarlin studied Fine Art and has developed a practice that is quietly confrontational — canvases that resist easy reading while rewarding sustained engagement. His work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions across South Africa and features in private and institutional collections.
Represented by Dyman Gallery in Stellenbosch, Oliver Scarlin has exhibited at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair and in multiple gallery exhibitions. His work appeals to collectors who value art with intellectual depth and formal commitment — paintings that ask questions rather than provide easy answers.
Oliver Scarlin
Oliver Scarlin was born in Cape Town in 1987. He completed his honors in illustration at Stellenbosch University in 2011, after which he studied painting at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy. Since his return to Cape Town he has primarily focused on painting perceptually, his work balancing the formal elements of his training with a personal and intimate touch.
EDUCATION
2012-2015 The Florence Academy of Art, Italy
2011-2012 B.A. Hons Illustration, University of Stellenbosch
2010-2011 Private instruction, Stellenbosch Atelier
2007-2009 B.A. Applied Design, The Stellenbosch Academy of Design & Photography
TEACHING
2015 Assistant Instructor (Drawing Program) – The Florence Academy of Art
2015 Instructor, Tanvi Pathare’s Plein Air Course, Stellenbosch
2015 Assistant Instructor, Academic Figure Drawing (Summer Course), The Florence Academy of Art
2018 – Private art lessons, Cape Town
