Alya Hatta (b.1999 Selangor, Malaysia) is an interdisciplinary artist based between London and Kuala Lumpur. She graduated from Goldsmiths University with the Neville Burston Award for Painting before completing the MA Painting Course at Royal College of Art in 2023.

Drawing on personal and historical archives, the work Hatta makes explores her Southeast Asian identity, and portrays the colourful intimacies of the diasporic human condition.

In the pursuit of self-discovery, Hatta takes inspiration from the communities of both her South-London and Kuala Lumpur residences, as well as Southeast Asian history and mythology. From personal digital archives, to old family photos to museum archives, Hatta sources imagery and text attempting to collage together differing realities that create new definitions of the word ‘home’.

Community and ecology are key influences in Hatta’s work. The foundation of these crafted realities are framed by ecologies that bridge Southeast Asia and Europe, often including imagery of flora and fauna native to each location. Sustainability directly informs Hatta’s practice. The materials within the work are sourced, and often donated, from the artist’s personal network or local family-run businesses: tires and chains from Bob’s Bikes on East Street Market, Denim off-cuts from The Garment Studio in Peckham and so forth. The objects themselves are curated by the community and feed themselves into the work, as a result personifying her relationships built over the years.

The thorough investigation of the self through both inward and outward exploration, the layering of past and present and well as her lived experience of the East and West amounts to an intimate practice that continues to grow with the artist.