Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Magdalena Skupinska artist

Artist Magdalena Skupinska was born in Warsaw in 1991 and moved to the UK to study at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (BA Fine Art, 2012-2015), followed by a Masters in Painting at the Royal College of Art (2015-2017). Since graduating Skupinska has exhibited in the UK and internationally. Her practice, which explores human interaction with nature, frequently draws on materials sourced in the natural world. Her abstract works stimulate multiple senses, while their quiet aesthetic fuses elements of Modernist traditions of biomorphic abstraction, Arte Povera and Minimalism.

Born: 1991 Warsaw, Poland

Year of Migration to the UK: 2012


Biography

Artist Magdalena Skupinska was born in Warsaw in 1991 and moved to the UK to study at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (BA Fine Art, 2012-2015), followed by a Masters in Painting at the Royal College of Art (2015-2017).

Her practice, which explores human interaction with nature, frequently draws on organic materials sourced in the natural world. Her striking abstract works, which often incorporate these natural elements with strong scents, stimulate multiple senses, including smell, while their quiet aesthetic fuses elements of Modernist traditions of biomorphic abstraction, Arte Povera and Minimalism. A specific body of work was produced in response to her experiences with the indigenous community of Santo Domingo Albarradas, in Mexico, in which Skupinska incorporated traditional materials and processes passed down by the women of the community in her art, utilising woven palm leaves as canvases and ground corn, berries, petals, in place of more conventional paints, extracting their colours in liquid form to use as natural pigments.

Skupinska has exhibited in the UK and internationally. In 2017 her work featured in Ben Uri's exhibition Art Out of the Bloodlands: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain. Skupinska primarily lives and works in London and has had residencies at Selebe Yoon, Dakar, Senegal; Fundación Casa Wabi in Oaxaca, Mexico; La Ira de Dios, Buenos Aires, Argentina and the Atlantic Center For The Arts, Florida, USA. Her work is not currently held in UK public collections. Her work has been acquired by the Muzeum Narodowe w Gdańsku, Gdańsk, Poland and Colleción Jumex in Mexico City. In London she is represented by the gallery Maximillian William.

Related books

  • Magdalena Skupinska, Blending Elements, Special Edition (London: Maximillian William, 2022)
  • Rachel Dickson, From Adler to Żuławski: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain (London: Ben Uri Research Unit, 2020)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Magda Skupinska, Fertile Plate, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, 2023
  • Blending Elements, Maximillian William, London (2022)
  • The Haptic Eye: Part Three, Pathways of Dexterity, Art Circle, online (2021)
  • LAYÚ, Maximillian William, London (2020)
  • The Haptic Eye: Part Two, Tactile Visions, Art Circle, online (2020)
  • Tender Touches, curated by Huma Kabakcı and Anna Skladmann, Open Space Contemporary, London, (2019)
  • Adventitious Encounters, curated by Huma Kabakcı and Anna Skladmann, Open Space Contemporary,London (2018)
  • Art Out of the Bloodlands: A Century of Polish Painting in Britain, Ben Uri, London (2017)
  • Degree Show, Royal College of Art, London (2017)
  • Elements of Silence, Maximillian William, London (2016)
  • Show One, Central Saint Martins Degree Show, London (2015)
  • Module Units, Wellcome Collection, London (2014)