An Artist You Should Know: Magnus Reid
photography by josh Sabini.
As I enter At the Above, the gallery turned temporary studio and hotel room, Australian-born artist Magnus Reid is painting the wooden structure of what is soon to be the sculpture that will display his brass masks.
While he paints, his two boys, Cosmo and Ozzy are sitting on the bed against the wall across from the door watching cartoons and eating strawberries. It’s Monday morning, four days before the opening night of Magnus’ latest exhibition, Hymns and Praise for That God That Appears at Dawn, since last Thursday he has been painting, constructing, re-stretching canvases and sleeping here, as a part of his artist residency at the gallery. The work for the show is quite different from Magnus’ infamous floral paintings, a collection of works featuring sun-headed beings depicted in scenes that blend ancient rituals with new age mysticism. The show is inspired by his time in Costa Rica and the history, traditions, and landscapes of Mallorca, the Spanish island he and his family have called home for the last five years.
I went past the Melbourne gallery to interview Magnus about the exhibition and have a look at his amazing work. Ending up hanging out with him and his boys, throwing the footy, telling stories and giggling on as Cosmo jumped from the couch onto the bed draped in white linen with fresh red stains from his and Ozzy’s strawberry breakfast doing what he called ‘Carrotballs’.
Hymns and Praise for That God That Appears at Dawn opens in Melbourne at, At the Above on Friday the 29thof November and is open until Sunday the 15th of December.
Right now, we are at At the Above in Melbourne where you’re doing a residency getting your art ready for the show that is opening here on Friday, how did the residency come up?
I did a residency here two years ago. I was stuck in Australia; these guys saw that I was here and reached out to see if I would be interested in coming out to do a residency. I moved in for two weeks last time, now they’ve invited me back for round two.
Last time were you making works from scratch while you were doing the residency?
I probably had a month and a half notice, so I made a body of work in Perth, where I was staying with my mum, and sent them here to finish. Everything I sent was half finished, with the flower paintings, it is a lot of background layers, a lot of oil paint, it is about two weeks’ worth of background until it dries and then you can do the final layers. I sent a lot of blank backgrounds, then spent two weeks on an art bender painting everyday [laughs].
How does this residency feel different from the last?
The main difference is that this is a new body of work. The last one was predominantly these flowers which I am known for, I didn’t want to come back and do a show that was similar. This one is work that I started working on in Costa Rica this year and developed it back in Mallorca, Spain, where I live now. All the large format paintings were painted in Spain, so there is a bit of a more Mediterranean and ancient feel to it. The last set of works was painted in Australia, and I am very influenced by my surroundings in terms of colours, textures, and softness or harshness of light. There is quite a Spanish influence in terms of the nudity that is very big where we live in Mallorca, the kind of ideas of an ancient ritual and the acknowledgement of God before form and set religion is something that is always present in those areas, Mallorca used to have Phoenicians and Moors before the Catholicism took over. Within its architecture and local storytelling, celebrations, and rituals there are references to Moorish backgrounds, Phoenicians, and early Catholicism. It all melds into one.
As you just mentioned early religions are a big part of this show, would you like to speak on that more?
Yeah, this show is called Hymn’s and Prayer’s to that God that Appears at Dawn, it is a play on modern spirituality, visually, but going into more ritualistic scenes, especially these ones that depict the almost baptism like scenes. All the figures are a bit more modern; they are all nude as nudity has become less and less taboo, especially in the mainstream with social media. The sun heads are a way to reference new-age spirituality that is moving towards pagan and pre-organised religion, religious beliefs.
You told me earlier that the show was heavily inspired by your time in Costa Rica, as well, what was that time in the country like?
I did a residency with SOMOS in Santa Teresa, and I went over thinking, ‘If I’ve got this opportunity to paint on someone else’s dime I should push the boat out’. I didn’t paint for two or three weeks beforehand, and I was really trying to see where something landed. All the techniques that are in these paintings, like the scraping out of the illustrative stuff, are all things that have been in prior work but haven’t been used in this way before. It was quite nice to take the skillsets that I have – I am obviously not a classically trained painter – and moulding them into something that could be a bit more conversational, less flat, with a bit more detail. I rarely paint figuratively but to introduce the figures you can create a bit more conversation, a bit more movement, you can paint a scene. When I was doing more floral stuff or the tinwork stuff it is pretty one dimensional, you can make a story that is behind it but you kind of have to give people a story but with this work you can let people decide.
Yeah, definitely. How does it feel to present a body of work that is quite different from what you have done in the past.
It is nerve-wracking. Every show is nerve-wracking and it’s not uncommon for artists not to like their own work, especially once they’ve finished it. I had so much fun making these works, it was really exciting to paint them and be in that zone. Once I finish a body of work, I step away before a show and am like, ‘What the fuck have I done’. That is why I try to paint right up until the show opens so I don’t have that zone of self-hatred where you question everything you do. These paintings had to be sent from Spain and it is quite nice to have not had them in my life for a minute, then re-stretch them here and rediscover them. My studio is only big enough that I can have two or three of these out at once so this is the first time, I’ve seen them all together and on walls as big as these which gives it a nice sense of place and I’m less nervous now if that makes sense.
You make a good point there, whenever you have done something, put it away for a bit and come back to it, it always feels different and fresher. I find that a lot with my photos, I’ll get them back, not like them, then a few days later look back again, notice elements I missed the first time and realise I do actually quite like them.
Yeah, you need to have fresh eyes. I think there is something about visual arts, like painting, photography, and sculpture where a good painting or good photo allows you to discover another bit of it every now and again. Maybe you see it in a different light and notice something you hadn’t before or you’re looking at it up close for the first time and see something or are seeing it in a bigger space and are taking in the whole thing as opposed to looking at it directly. That is what is exciting about it, I always try to find that in my painting, I try not to let the eye settle too quickly. [Points to painting] This one has that circle in it, but you can get lost in the trees, flowers, and the textures of the bodies. I don’t want people to settle as quickly as you might looking at flatter, more obvious paintings.
Do you find that focal point has been something you’ve been able to explore more with this work, having more going on within the painting rather than with the floral work which usually is one flower taking up the whole canvas?
Yeah, I am trying to avoid it [focal point]. I am trying to find a way that people’s eyes move around, that there are things to focus on. I really love where all the limbs crossover and you have all these details to get interested in so your eyes have to work to make it out so you can be like ‘Oh that’s an arm there and a leg here’, it doesn’t quite let you sit still with it which I quite like.
That is cool, it helps the viewer not get bored of it too, finding something new in it every time you look at it.
Yeah, definitely. I want people to continue to discover stuff.
Earlier you said that you get heavily inspired by where you are living. I know you lived in London for quite a while, what was your art inspired by there?
I made a lot more graphic art in London. It is such an intense place to live, it is actually quite a colourful and bright place. It feels like you are competing with the busyness, so I tended to make these more simple, bold pieces, like the flowers and the bigger they got with the more petals they had they had this more trippy, unsettling thing going on. There was something about making big graphic pieces that was nice and calming there. Living in Spain now, I am not competing with the energy of the city, but more the nature that we live in. We live in these huge, big mountains. You are competing with the grandness of nature; every second day is an amazing sunset. I like how it makes you feel small and feels ancient there, all the houses are made of stone, some over two hundred years ago. I love living in that environment because your imagination can go back to that time pretty easily. I’ve always been obsessed with folk and ancient art, I always mimic it in my art, so it’s nice to be there in it as opposed to looking at it through museums.
The thing you said about London being colourful is really funny, because that was one of the first things I noticed about the city when I went there for the first time. I had expected it to be so grey and miserable but walking around it is so much different.
I think that is the secret to the Brits, they’ve had to make their culture for themselves, it is really theirs, they have been going for so long. Of course, if it is so grim, there are going to be people pushing colour. You have all the fashion designers doing extreme stuff, you can see that with Vivian Westwood back in the day who was very London and started punk, now to people like Henry Holland who was designing all bright and fluro. There are a lot of cultural movements that bounce away from the grey London thing and stick the finger to it.
You’ve been sleeping in the gallery too. How has it been sleeping where you are working and around all your work?
Pretty full on, to be honest, it is mostly the light. That’s why that painting is up on the window because there’s a streetlight that shines straight into my face. Sleeping with the work is interesting, the first couple of nights I had it all along on that wall. I think it is important because you get to live with it and that’s a special thing. A lot of paintings you do, they go out the door, go to someone’s house and they live with. I don’t have paintings in my bedroom that I’ve done, and it isn’t often that you get to sit, get bored and stare at a painting that you’ve done, so that is a special thing.
Are there any pieces in here that you wanted to speak on?
Not necessarily, but this sculptural piece that I am making now is quite a nice way to display something that isn’t in the show for a monetary reason. It isn’t for sale, but it is a nice way to add to the show. I always used to love going to shows as a kid going to shows and there was stuff that was irrelevant, but it added to the show, that could even be something like really nice furniture to sit on. There was something exciting about details going into it like that. It is a nice way to showcase the brass masks without being more stuff on a wall or stuff on a plinth.
For sure. What’s next from here once you leave Melbourne?
I am looking to show in Berlin and am wanting to go towards America showing in New York. Once I do a group of work like this, I kind of have it as something I go back to. Creatively I tend to cycle through all my tricks, I’ll do a flower and be like ‘Cool, I can still do that’ and then some of these and be like ‘Cool, I can still do that’. I do that until something jumps out and takes me into a new direction. I’m also thinking I want to do some ceramic pieces, doing a smaller show in Europe that can have a bit more sculpture and some painting to supplement. That’s more of a personal thing I want to do making ceramic bits. I have this idea to do urns for ashes, but really fun ones, going into that ritualistic thing, it is a modern ritual. I think you could make it quite fun, and I really like the idea of people using them. The idea of pre-buying one now and when you get sent off, going in one that is fun.
This has been great, thank you so much for having me and showing me through everything.
Thanks for coming.