Magda Skupinska

Through her formal and conceptual vocabulary, Magda Skupinska engages with the idea of social interaction through her investigation of the tangible quality of organic materials – namely, spices and fruit, which offer enveloping sensory experiences. Drawing from modernist traditions of biomorphic abstraction, to Arte Povera and Minimalism, Skupinska’s works facilitate a reconnection with the essential multi-sensory experiences that stimulate the basis of our being. This new body of work offers a window into the process and exploration of the new fabrics, materials and weather conditions that Skupinska was exposed to when relocating her practice in the Pacific coast of Mexico over the last year. Throughout her journey, Skupinska uncovered a broad variety of new materials native to Mexico. Fascinated by the pre-hispanic period and the deep roots of Mexican culture, the artist started working with materials like nopal, corn, clay and diverse exotic fruits. For the basis of her canvases, she worked with Jute weaved in Colombia, characterised by its rough texture and normally used as a fruit and vegetable sack. Along with the investigation of new canvas fabrics and native materials, Skupinska had to consider the tropical climate of the Mexican coast, which strongly challenged and influenced this body of work, with high humidity and temperatures evoking a necessity to build a stronger and more resistant paint. Consequently, weather conditions became a controlling factor for the textures and evolution of the paintings in its last stages.