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Hanna Waves, Australian, 1996, Contemporary Artist

    Hanna Waves

    AustralianAustralian
    , b. 1996
    Hanna Waves is a contemporary Australian artist based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, known for expansive, minimalist fields of colour populated by a single hyper-realistic vignette. A former frontline paramedic and then strategist, she makes work driven by an obsession with the vulnerability of the human experience. Every figure is measured against her index finger and scaled proportionally to the piece's size, creating a distinct tension on the canvas. By placing these small human rituals within vast horizons, she sets the immensity of a feeling against the smallness of the person having it, inside a large, open world, leaving intentional space for the viewer to feel and experience. Large worlds for small moments.

    About Hanna Waves

    Two worlds, neither was hers

    Hanna Waves spent a decade in two very different environments: on the road as a frontline paramedic, present for people's most vulnerable moments, and then at executive level as a strategist improving that same system. She was successful in both, but neither felt like hers. Those years left her with an internal archive of human emotion and experience, and a conviction that while the world is vast and complex, it is the simple, intimate moments that carry us through every season.

    In 2026 she left her career to commit to her studio practice full-time. Her debut collection, Drop 01, sold out globally within forty-eight hours to collectors across multiple countries.

    Space first, moments last

    Her process is defined by strict physical restraint and deep emotional concept. Each canvas begins as one or two flat fields of earth tones. Into this expanse she introduces a single vignette, at the scale it would occupy in a world that large. Painted under studio lights with ultra-fine brushes, every work follows three rules: the figures are scaled to her index finger, they are in nature, and they never break the fourth wall. They stay absorbed in their own moment, leaving the viewer as a silent observer or participant.

    Collections built around a feeling

    Hanna Waves works in structured, named collections released on a fixed schedule. Her 2026 collection, Out of Office, turns the digital absences of modern working life (a board meeting, do not disturb, left on read, no service) into physical landscapes: a dawn surf, figures resting on loungers, a vintage Riva, a dying campfire, and a diver leaving a jetty. The title work, Out of Office, is the leap itself: in her words, the other four are places you go to be out of office, and this one is taking the leap and leaving. Scarcity and the ledger

    To protect the integrity of her primary and secondary markets, the studio limits production to a select number of originals each year. Print editions are strictly time-limited and permanently closed after a single window, so they are never reprinted. Every original is registered in the studio's archival ledger and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, and travels with a hand-made provenance card on premium cotton rag. As the artist puts it: "The water doesn't get warmer the longer you wait."

    Collector & Guidance

    Buying

    Buying a Hanna Waves

    Hanna Waves's work comes in two forms: unique original paintings and time-limited print editions. Each piece in a collection is usually released as both, at the same time and in the same window.

    Original paintings

    Originals are acrylic on canvas, one of one, signed on the reverse with the studio register number. Each comes with a certificate of authenticity and a hand-made provenance card, and is recorded in the studio's archival ledger, so ask for all three. The Out of Office originals run from 90 x 90 cm to 120 x 180 cm; the title work is float-framed in walnut-stained Tasmanian oak for exhibition.

    Time-limited print editions

    Prints are sold for a fixed window rather than in a fixed number. The edition stays open until the window closes, then closes permanently; the final number sold becomes the edition size, confirmed after the close. Edition sizes are not published. Out of Office prints come on paper and on canvas in the same sizes: 50 x 70, 59 x 84, 84 x 119 and 119 x 168 cm for Board Meeting, No Service and Out of Office, and 60 x 60, 90 x 90 and 120 x 120 cm for Do Not Disturb and Left On Read. Drop 01 prints were 60 x 50 cm and 90 x 75 cm.

    Buying at release

    New collections open at a set time to her first-access mailing list, which counted over fifteen thousand people ahead of Out of Office, most of them outside Australia. Out of Office opened on 1 November 2026 at 11:11am AEST and closes on 8 November 2026 at 11:11am

    Selling

    Selling a Hanna Waves

    Every Drop 01 piece is sold and its editions are closed, so any Drop 01 work now changes hands only on the secondary market. Before listing, have the certificate of authenticity ready and, for an original, the provenance card and the studio register number on the reverse, so the work can be matched to the studio's ledger. For a print, the edition is the window it was sold in; there is no number on the sheet to check against a published edition size. Hanna Waves is part of FairArt's Artist Royalties programme, so a share of resales on FairArt goes to the artist.

    Recognition

    All five Out of Office paintings were shown together at DMNR Studio in Southport, Queensland, on 31 October 2026, the day before the collection opened. Studio videos of the collection were seen more than fourteen million times in the month before the auction opened.

    Market & Collectability

    Hanna Waves's market is still largely a primary one. Her debut collection, Drop 01, sold out within forty-eight hours of its release on 15 May 2026, and the first original to be offered at auction is the title painting of Out of Office, in a FairArt timed online auction from 1 to 8 November 2026. No other auction results are on record yet, so the result of that sale will set the first public reference point for an original.

    FAQS

    How do you buy a Hanna Waves painting or print when it comes out?

    Collections open at a set time, announced first to her mailing list through hannawaves.com, and stay on sale for a short, fixed window. Drop 01 was released on 15 May 2026 for forty-eight hours; Out of Office opened on 1 November 2026 at 11:11am AEST and closes a week later. Originals and prints go on sale together.

    Are Hanna Waves print editions ever reprinted?

    No. Each print edition is time-limited: it is sold in a single window, then closed permanently and never reprinted. The number sold in that window becomes the edition size, confirmed after the close. Every Drop 01 edition is now closed.

    What is Hanna Waves's index finger rule?

    Every figure she paints is measured against her own index finger and scaled proportionally to the size of the canvas, so the people in her pictures keep a constant scale across her whole body of work. The vast fields around them hold the figures rather than shrinking them.

    What comes with a Hanna Waves original?

    Each original is signed on the reverse with its studio register number and recorded in the studio's archival ledger. It comes with a certificate of authenticity and a hand-made provenance card on premium cotton rag.

    Where does the Out of Office collection get its titles?

    Each title is an office phrase that the painting turns into a real scene of being away: Board Meeting, Do Not Disturb, Left On Read, No Service and Out of Office become a dawn surf, figures resting on loungers, a vintage Riva, a dying campfire and a diver leaving a jetty.