Magdalena Skupinska Polish, b. 1991
Magdalena Skupinska (b. 1991, Warsaw, Poland) is an artist whose practice explores the material and conceptual entanglements between organic matter, landscape, and human intervention. Rooted in a process of research and experimentation, her work engages with the complex, often uneasy, relationship between natural and constructed environments.
Working with plant-based pigments, minerals, and raw materials, Skupinska extends the lineage of Arte Povera and Minimalism, but with a focus on material agency and ecological consciousness. Her paintings resist containment, evolving through layering, absorption, and the slow transformation of organic elements over time. Through abstraction, she translates the rhythms of growth, erosion, and decay - inviting a sensory and tactile engagement with surface, colour, and texture.
At the core of her practice is an inquiry into how materials carry memory - of place, of process, of interaction. By allowing natural pigments to settle, bleed, and alter, her works embrace impermanence, reflecting both the fragility and resilience of the environments from which they emerge. Skupinska completed her BA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London, and her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London. She has participated in international residencies including Althea Art Residency in Tokyo, Japan; Selebe Yoon in Dakar, Senegal; Fundación Casa Wabi in Oaxaca, Mexico; La Ira de Dios in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, USA. Selected solo exhibitions include soft crossing at Maximillian William, London (2025); Fertile Plate at Blum & Poe, Los Angeles (2023); Blending Elements (2022); Layú (2019) at Maximillian William, London; DAMA at Palazzo Saluzzo Paesana, Turin (2016). Selected group exhibitions include The Weight Between at Gathering, London, UK (2026), Borrowed Landscapes at Blum and Poe, Tokyo, Japan (2023); Tender Touches at Open Space Contemporary, London (2019); and White Memory – 1989/2018 Art in Malta and Poland, St James Cavalier, Valletta, Malta (2017).
EDUCATION
2015 - 2017 MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2012 - 2015 BA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, London, UK
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 soft crossing, Maximillian William, London, UK
2023 Aftertime, Vacant/Centre, Tokyo, Japan
Fertile Plate, Blum and Poe, Los Angeles, USA
2022 Blending Elements, Maximillian William, London UK
2020 LAYÚ, Maximillian William, London UK
2016 DAMA, Palazzo Saluzzo Paesana, Turin, Italy
2016 Elements of Silence, Maximillian William, London, UK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 The Weight Between, Gathering, London, UK
2024 5 year, Maximillian William, London, UK
2023 Borrowed Landscapes, Blum and Poe, Tokyo, Japan
2019 Tender Touches, Open Space Contemporary, London, UK
2018 Adventitious Encounters, Open Space Contemporary, London, UK
2017 White Memory – 1989/2018 Art in Malta and Poland, St James Cavalier, Valletta, Malta
Surface Issues, Leila Heller Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Art Out of the Bloodlands: A Century of Polish Painting in Britain, Ben Uri, London, UK
2016 Future Narratives, La Ira de Dios, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2014 Module Units, Wellcome Collection, London, UK
RESIDENCIES
2026 Bundanon Artist Residency, Illaroo, NSW, Australia
2023 Althe Art Residency, Tokyo, Japan
High House Artist Residency, Norfolk, UK
2021 Selebe Yoon, Dakar, Senegal
2018 Casa Wabi, Oaxaca, Mexico
2017 Atlantic Center For the Arts, Residency with Joan Snyder, Florida, USA
2016 La Ira de Dios, Buenos Aires, Argentina
