“I was born in South Africa beneath the Southern Cross, where my earliest teachers were trees, birds, and the red soil under my feet. From the beginning I listened to the natural world and shaped it into song, story, and art. I became an international artist, exhibiting in museums and galleries for over two decades, yet the deeper call of the Earth eventually led me away from that world. A pivotal encounter in the desert with a Viper became an initiation, reminding me that creativity is inseparable from the wisdom of nature. Today I create sanctuaries on the land, work with sound and energy, and guide others in restoring their connection to Earth and ancestry. My art and practice serve beauty, the living planet, and those ready to hear the ancients again.”

(photo credit © Ana Carballosa)

Anja is a visual artist based in Northern New Mexico. She studied Sculpture at the University of Pretoria and received her B.F.A. from the University of South Africa in 1999. Her work explores thresholds between the human and more-than-human world, often through sculpture, installation, and ritual environments that engage sound, story, and ancestral knowledge.

Marais has exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the University of Northern Colorado, and Bridge Red Project Space in Miami, as well as group shows at the Orlando Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, and the Harwood Museum of Art. Her work has been featured in residencies worldwide, including Sculpture Space (NY), the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation (NM), UCROSS (WY), Santa Fe Art Institute (NM), NCCA Residency (Russia), Arteles (Finland), and Mino Paper Art Residency (Japan). Her art is held in public collections such as the Orlando Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Miami, the NCCA Ministry of Culture in Russia, and the Akari Museum in Japan.

In addition to her artistic career, Marais has pursued cross-cultural energy and healing studies that inform the immersive and relational aspects of her practice. She has worked with a wide variety of teachers from many different cultures and belief systems. Her cornerstone mentorship is in the Mystic School of ancestral guidance and with South African Zulu Healers & Sangomas. She has also trained in Energy Restoration & Metaphysical Healing practices, both in the West and East, in modalities such as curse unravelling, compassionate depossession, soul retrieval, psychopomp facilitation, ceremony, divination, channeling, and mediumship. She also received Kriya Initiation from her Indian spiritual teacher, Sri M. These teachings, combined with her deep artistic lineage, guide her in creating sanctuaries and installations that serve as spaces of connection for both human and panvital planetary denizens.

Her practice as a bhakta* to the Great Goddess is situated at the intersection of contemporary art, ritual, and ecological consciousness.

* The term bhakta comes from the Sanskrit word for “devotion, faith, or love” and signifies a deep, emotional, and personal connection to the divine. Bhakta are selfless in their worship, seeking the Divine through loving service and dedication.