Magali Reus

The work of Magali Reus (Den Haag, 1981) often begins with familiar existing objects. Applying a sensuous material intelligence and precise compositional grammar, Reus coaxes our relations between the characteristics of objects and our conventional, habitualised encounters with them. Physical transformation and display sets the stage for an object to shed its function and perform a different image of itself. Newly liberated, such objects and forms take on a strange, disobedient agency.  

Magali Reus was born in Den Haag, The Netherlands and currently lives and works in London.

Recent solo exhibitions Deeper Green, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bratislava; CAC Synagogue de Delme, Delme (both 2023) On Like Scenery, Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Sint-Marten-Latem; A Sentence in Soil, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (both 2022); As mist, description, South London Gallery, London (2018); Hot Cottons, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen (2017); Night Plants, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen (2017); Mustard, The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2016); Quarters, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2016); Spring for a Ground, SculptureCenter, New York; Particle of Inch, The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield; Halted Paves, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster (all 2015). Reus has been included in group exhibitions and screenings at Tate Britain, London; ICA, London; CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson; Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover; LUMA Westbau, Zürich; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; David Roberts Art Foundation, London; Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporanea, Lisbon, De Appel, Amsterdam and the British Art Show 8 (touring).

Reus has been shortlisted for the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture 2018, and she was awarded the Prix de Rome 2015. Her work is included in international collections including Tate Collection, UK; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Centraal Museum, Utrecht; The Hepworth, Wakefield, UK; Collection CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson; Kunstmuseum Winterthur; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen; Lafayette Anticipation — Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris; Rubell Family Collection, Miami; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Arts Council Collection, UK; The Government Art Collection, London; David Roberts Art Foundation, London; The Perimeter, London.

Education
2013 - 2014 Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam
2006 - 2008 MFA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, London
2002 - 2005 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, London
2001 - 2002 Art Foundation, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam

Prizes
2024 Arnaldo Pomodoro Sculpture Prize
2018 Hepworth Prize for Sculpture (Shortlisted)
2015 Prix de Rome

Solo exhibitions

2024
Museo del Novecento, Milan, IT
Museum Kurhaus Kleve, DE (forthcoming)

2023
Deeper Green, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bratislava, HU
Le Plat Principal, Centre d’art contemporain, Synagogue de Delme, Delme, FR 

2022
On Like Scenery, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem, BE
XII, The Approach, London, UK
A Senctence in Soil, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX, USA
Shadow Tonics, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, NL

2021
Pale Planets, Galeria Nuno Centeno, Porto, PT
Earth Stretched at Noon, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, IL
Stem Systems, OVR The Approach, London, UK

2019
Private Road, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, New York, USA

2018
As mist, description, South London Gallery, UK

2017
Hot Cottons, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, NO
Night Plants, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, CH

2016
Mustard, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL
Quarters, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, IT

2015
Halted Paves, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, DE
Particle of Inch, The Hepworth Wakefield, UK
Spring for a Ground, SculptureCenter, New York, USA

2014
Dinosaurs, Circuit, Lausanne, CH
In Lukes and Dregs, The Approach, London, UK

2013
Highly Liquid, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, NL
Out of Empty, Albert Baronian, Room, Brussels, BE

2012
Hands Down, Unsolo project room (1/9unosunove), Milan, IT

2011
ON, The Approach, London, UK

2010
Weekend, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, NL
Background, IBID Projects, London, UK
2009
Background, La Salle de bains, Lyon, FR
Some Surplus, Plan B Projects, Amsterdam, NL

2008
The Angle Between Two Walls, MOT International, London, UK (with Brock Enright)

2006
A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, NL

Group exhibitions

2022
When Things are Beings, Proposals for the Museum Collection, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NL
FRONT International, Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, USA 
Ecosystems of Relations, Super Dakota, BE

2021
After Daan van Golden, Part Projects, Den Haag, NL
Before the Cockerel Crows, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Guarene, IT
Something About Us, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, NL
Moment. Monument, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, CH

2020
Melancholy of the Future, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Gent, BE
City Pollen, The World as Lover, The World as Self, Shimmer, Rotterdam, NL
This margin will be your vantage point, In Situ – Fabienne Leclerc, Romainville, FR
Shorelines, Ordet (online), Milan, IT

2019
who knows one (curated by Haim Steinbach), Vistamare, Pescara, IT
The Extended Mind: Walk, Hands, Eyes, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
How We Live: Selections from the Marc & Livia Straus Family Collection, Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY, USA
La Stanza Analoga, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo at the Palazzo Biscari, Catania, IT
Material Encounters, The Hepworth Wakefield, UK
Delirious, Lustwarande at Fundament Foundation, Tilburg, NL
Hybrid Sculpture, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL
Familiar Machines, Backlit, Nottingham, UK

2018
Even if it’s Jazz or the Quiet Storm, NEST, Den Haag, NL
Hepworth Prize for Sculpture, Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, UK
True Luxury… Art Acquisitions 2012-2018, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL
The Everyday and Extraordinary, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Towner art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK
The 57th October Salon: The Marvellous Cacophony, cur. by Gunnar B. Kvaran and Danielle Kvaran), Cultural Centre of Belgrade, CS
DRAF + MOSTYN: She sees the shadows, Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales, UK
Smooth Transitions, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, CH
6C7N1H8O16S, The Island Club, Limassol, CY
Die Zelle, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, DE
Group exhibition, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, CH

2017
20 Years, The Approach, London, UK
Future Eaters, Monash University Museum of Art, Victoria, AU
EuroVisions: Contemporary Art from the Goldberg Collection, NAS Gallery, AU
Inside Intensity, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, DE
Disobedient Bodies, The Hepworth Wakefield, UK

2016
Conversation Piece, Part 3, Fondazione Memmo, Rome, IT
High Anxiety: New Acquisitions, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL, USA
Invisible Adversaries, CCS Bard, New York, NY, USA
The Promise of Total Automation, Kunsthalle Wien, AT
Condo, Carlos/Ishikawa, London, UK

2015-2017
British Art Show 8, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK; Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich, UK; John Hansard Gallery and Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton, UK

2015
NATIONAL GALLERY II: EMPIRE, Chewdays, London, UK
NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL, USA
Prix de Rome 2015, de Appel arts centre, Amsterdam, NL
Objects, Food, Rooms, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, NY
Works on Paper, Greene Naftali, New York, USA
I am here but you’ve gone, Fiorucci Art Trust, London, UK
Hybridize or Disappear, National Museum of Contemporary Art in Lisbon, PT
The Noing Uv It, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, NO
Fit for Purpose, Kunsthaus Glarus, CH

2014
Monumental Fatigue, Freymond Guth, Zurich, CH
Bill Bollinger, John Divola, Magali Reus, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, US
Devolution of Culture, Rob Tufnell, London, UK
Theatre Objects, ETH Zürich and LUMA Foundation, Zürich, CH
Till youth and genial years are flown, ZERO, Milan, IT
Nature after Nature, Fridericianum, Kassel, DE
To Meggy Weiss Lo Surdo, Happy Hours, CO2, Torino, IT
Superficial Hygiene, De Hallen, Haarlem, NL
Pool, Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, DE
Post / Postminimal. The Rolf Ricke Collection in Dialogue with Contemporary Artists, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, CH
Geographies of Contamination, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK

2013
Rijksakademie Open, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, NL
Silent Hardware, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
Comrades of Time, Cell Project Space, London, UK
Shadows of a Doubt, Tallinn Photomonth 2013, Tallin, EE
SLIP, The Approach, London, UK
Notes (on declassing), cureated by Vincent Honoré, Gelarie Opdahl, Stavanger, NO
Heavy duty, silent haze, racing hearts, Freymond Guth Fine Arts, Zurich, CH
Material World, NEST, The Hague, NL
Can’t Hear My Eyes, NoguerasBlachard, Barcelona/Madrid, ES

2012
Group Show, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, NL
superpositions, New Wight Biennial, New Wight Gallery, Broad Art Centre, USA
Blackboard, SPACE, London, UK

2011
Rain, Cell Project Space, London, UK
Young London, V22 Collection, London, UK
Rehearsal, Galeri Non, Istanbul, TR

2010
Martijn Hendriks & Magali Reus, Walden Affairs, Den Haag, NL
From Ritual to Theatre, Ancient & Modern, London, UK
Fluorescent Adolescent, SCHUNCK, Glaspaleis, Heerlen, NL

2009
Là-bas’, Galerie Crevecoeur, Paris, FR
Verité Tropicale, Circuit, Lausanne, CH
Rotate, Contemporary Art Society, London, UK

2008
Sun Shine Shine, Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem, NL
ARTfutures, Bloomberg SPACE, London, UK
Bass Diffusion Mode, Fieldgate Gallery, London, UK
Rochav Aorech (Width Length), Darom Gallery, Tel Aviv, IL

Collections
Arts Council Collection, UK
Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL
David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK
Frac Grand Large - Hauts-de-France, FR
Government Art Collection, UK
The Hepworth, Wakefield, UK
Kunstmuseum St Gallen, St Gallen
Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, CH
Lafayette Anticipation — Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris, FR
Marieluise Hessel Collection of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA
The Perimeter, London, UK
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, IT
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL
Tate Collection, London, UK
Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK; Sarvisalo, New York, USA