Collection: Marika Mahne Pretoruis

Marika Mahne (Pretorius) is a South African artist based in the heart of Pretoria. Her practice is deeply rooted in a love for her city and country, focusing on capturing the significance of both familiar and sentimental spaces within the urban landscape.

Since 2015, she has intentionally immersed herself in Pretoria’s architectural and heritage-rich cityscape, developing a visual language that reflects both its history and its evolving identity. Her work explores the relationship between place, memory, and belonging, often conveying a sense of growth, movement, and lived experience within the built environment.

Mahne’s compositions combine architectural heritage with natural and topographical elements, including bird life and organic movement, creating layered narratives where nature and city coexist. She is particularly interested in the dialogue between older structures and contemporary developments, and how these spaces are continuously reshaped by time and use.

Working primarily with dip-pen inks and mixed media on fine art paper, she achieves intricate micro-detail while also suggesting broader aerial perspectives within the same composition. In some instances, her work expands into large-scale mural projections, immersing the viewer in the atmosphere and essence of the landscape she seeks to translate.