Magda Kirk
Magda Kirk (Magdalena Kirklewska) is a Polish artist (b.1990). She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts/ Painting Department in Gdańsk, Poland (2015). In her work, she focuses on the theme of the body in cultural and social contexts. She creates images of bodies in a dreamy, blurry aura. Inspired by models, bodybuilders, and fictional characters such as superheroes, she explores cultural patterns of female and male body image and their impact on contemporary people's identity, self-perception, and self-expression. Combining humor and horror, beauty and ugliness, cuteness and aggression, her work shows the ambiguous emotions that accompany our intimate relationship with the body as both subject and object. She uses popular motifs and symbols from tattoo culture, trash graffiti, cartoons, and broadly defined pop culture, often blending them into a tissue that forms the bodies' flesh. Her painting process involves the meditative layering of colors and airbrush doodles, resulting in an impression of luminous, unreal realism.
HELLO MAGDA, THANK YOU FOR PAINTING WITH US! TO START, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF YOUR ART PRACTICE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAYERING OF TATTOO-LIKE IMAGERY?
I’ve been interested in the human body for as long as I can remember, but the origins of my work are diverse, shaped by many influences I’ve absorbed since childhood. The tattoo-like layers in my paintings are not tattoos in the literal sense, but fragments of my environment. I grew up in Poland in the 90s and early 2000s, fascinated by western pop culture, cartoons, and games, and surrounded by random ads and graffiti that brightened otherwise grey streets. These images and sounds often lingered in my mind. I like to turn such fragments of reality into a dense, multilayered mesh, like a tissue that forms the flesh of my bodies.
CAN YOU TELL US WHAT SPECIFICALLY PIQUED YOUR INTEREST IN PARTICIPATING IN 4BYSIX’S PROJECT?
I wanted to take part because it felt like a chance to do something meaningful. I respect your mission and the way you connect art with a larger cause. It was also great to break the mold by painting something new and on a less obvious material.
HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT CHOOSING THE TATTOO DESIGNS? DO THEY PLAY A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN SHAPING THE NARRATIVE AND EMOTIONAL TONE OF THE WORK?
I don’t select them as fixed symbols. They rather reflect the fragmented and multifaceted reality we all live in. I like to collect pop culture trash, images and symbols found on the streets, on the internet, or on the everyday products that I use. When I imagine my environment, I see it as a vague, overlapping flow of images. Tattoos are traditionally linked to identity, and I would say this is a part of my cultural heritage. They are about how bodies absorb and express this mix of images, sounds and sensations, becoming complex characters.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE PIECE YOU HAVE CREATED FOR THE 4BYSIX AUCTION? WHAT WAS THE THOUGHT PROCESS BEHIND THE IMAGE?
For this work I took a more narrative, illustrative approach than I usually do. I painted a hairy character alone in the mountains, inspired by my own experience last summer. I wanted to capture the tension between being deeply connected with nature, while at the same time feeling the constant pull of everyday, digital reality. It’s about that moment of transition, when you realize life could be lived in a completely different way.
HOW WAS WORKING ON THE RECYCLED PLASTIC CANVAS PANEL? DID YOU DRAW ANY INSPIRATION FROM THE MATERIAL ITSELF?
I liked the idea of placing acrylic paint, which is essentially liquid plastic, directly on top of compressed plastics that already carried their own history and unique structure. Like layering one kind of plastic memory over another. But since I had never painted on a surface like this before, I sanded it and applied gesso first, to be sure it would hold.
DO YOU THINK ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY IN YOUR WORK? THIS CAN BE IN THE LITERAL AND/OR METAPHORICAL SENSE.
Painting itself isn’t an ecologically sustainable practice, I won’t pretend that it is. What I do hope is that my works can hold some meaning and stay with people a bit longer than an Instagram story.
THE SUBJECTS IN YOUR PAINTINGS ARE OFTEN PORTRAYED WITH DELIBERATE DISTORTIONS AND COMPLEX ANGLES. WHAT MOTIVATES THIS APPROACH, AND HOW DOES IT RELATE TO YOUR PERCEPTION OF IDENTITY, PERCEPTION, OR SOCIETAL PRESSURES?
My bodies are meant to be like distorted mirror reflections. I don’t aim to show real bodies but highly subjective body images. None of us sees their body objectively, we see it through the filter of emotions, personal struggles, cultural context, and the expectations that society puts on us. These pressures inevitably distort the way we see ourselves. For me body image is a constantly changing inner portrait, shaped by both inner and outer forces.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT ANY PROJECTS YOU ARE WORKING ON NOW? WHAT IS NEXT FOR YOU?
I’m currently working on a series of sculptures as part of a scholarship project from my hometown, Gdańsk. I’m not doing a solo show this year, just a couple of group shows. I’m focused on deep studio work and exploring some new means of expression.