Press Release

Ana Cristea Gallery is pleased to present “Medium”, Brooklyn-based painter Gina Magid’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Using a seductive combination of oil paint, charcoal, and other media on stretched satin, Magid deftly integrates contemporary images that double as ancient and well-worn archetypes in order to create her deeply layered and psychological artworks. Restless celebrities, wild animals, and sports cars are just a few of the symbols Magid employs, conjuring centuries-old ideas about mystic femininity, communication, and transportation.

Responding to the painting as it develops, Magid uses layers of divergent line and color to create a complex and unexpected beauty. Upon viewing her works, the observer experiences a sensation akin to being caught between a dream and conscious reality. Patterns emerge from the repetition of Magid's imagery, creating a patch-worked harmony that explores a world somewhere between observation and perception, waking and sleeping, and conscious and unconscious awareness.

Gina Magid currently lives and works in Brooklyn. She was the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in 2003 and a McDowell Colony fellowship in 2004. Magid has had solo exhibitions at Feature Inc., New York; Acuna Hansen Gallery, Los Angeles, and Artists Space, New York. Her work has been included in group shows at the Francis Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York; DiverseWorks, Houston, TX; the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, and Exit Art, New York, as well as in “Greater New York 2005,” at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York.