We had the pleasure of hosting a wizard of sorts—some call him an artist, others a chef. You can decide for yourself. What we do know? He came as a stranger and left as a friend. We’re stoked to present our month-long artist residency with the one and only Magnus Reid.
We asked his best friend Nick a.k.a. Chet Faker to give us a background on Mags for those who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him:
NICK:
Magnus is one of those guys that just sort of shows up in your life one day and you don’t even really understand how you were never not friends. He’s always so encouraging, and somehow, always has time to talk about whatever going on. He has so much space and interest and care for whats going on around him. It’s like, truly just amazing.
Mag had this amazing restaurant, Legs in Hackney, and had a couple of Michelin bibs. People flying from around the world to come and eat at the restaurant. You know, top of the game. He had the whole city of London at his fingertips. And he was just like, Nah, I’m bored with this now. And he just stops…
Everyone thought he was crazy. We chatted on the phone one day and he’s like, I think I’m just going to focus on my painting and, you know, within a year perhaps he was a full time painter and he just found his voice, his style, like it was nothing.
You know, some people, some people that just sort of fully themselves. And that’s what I think of with Magnus. So, yeah, I don’t know. I love that guy, he’s my art brother.
Magnus on his background and experience:
MAGNUS:
”I don’t have a classical training, and I’ve never been to school. When I start a piece, to be honest, I’m just putting paint on a canvas. The physical act of painting is where I start, and I paint quite fast. So, there’s a childlike quality to it. I also love painting over paintings. It’s so liberating to just say fuck it throw it in the bin. I get energy from that ya know.
I paint from memory and from intuition so the environment is a huge part of how I make work. Going to any new place, you don’t know how it’s going to land. Santa Teresa and Somos, there was a magic there. Everybody was excited to be a part of something that I was going to do. Because of that, I created a new series, a new kind of body of work that will now inform the rest of my work for the next couple of months. I could have painted 100 more paintings, you know, I got into this flow.
And then, you know, to finish off, to finish off the trip by having a little open studio for these friends you’ve met, these new people that are now in your life, for them to come and kind of see the finished product and to see kind of the end result of this little journey that they were ultimately a part of. It rounded off the trip really nicely.
I think with with all artwork, it’s important to present it. It’s important to kind of show people, you know, that’s the point.
A few pieces left, available for pickup at SOMOS. For non local, contact Magnus Directly on instagram @magnusreid
