Stuart Hahn was born in Nevis in 1949, came to Trinidad as an infant, grew up in South Trinidad before moving north to Port of Spain, is still resident in Trinidad. He attended school in Barbados (Mapps College) and Trinidad (QRC), worked as a graphic artist and illustrator in several advertising companies, and Paria Publishing (The Selfish Gini, Tales Of The Paria Mainroad, Derek Walcott’s Ti-Jean And His Brothers) until retirement in 1982, has since then Exhibited in various local galleries and internationally, illustrating local folk lore, myth, and legend from diverse other cultures. He works primarily in ink and coloured pencils. He is influenced by Pre Raphealite, Symbolist, Decadent, and art nouveau art and illustration, is known for the detail, eroticism and intricacy of his work.

Recently, I have been less interested in intricacy, detail and decoration, have moved more towards austerity and plain reality, especially in my ongoing series of Dante’s Inferno, following the exhibition EDEN, which focused on the cruelty of the first story of the Bible, and even further back, the raw violence of Greek tragedy. Why? May be mirroring the the present unfolding atrocities of Isreal-America in the middle east, which is unfortunately nothing new in our collective history of human violence. That said, i have to confess I haven’t totally abandoned the more life-celebrating, playful and erotic work, how could I, living in this crazy world where the pendulum is always swinging to the extremes of our best and worst natures?