Magda Stawarska-Beavan

Magda Stawarska-Beavan’s current role is as research associate specialising in multidisciplinary, contemporary art practice. Her most significant work to date includes: outdoor installation at TONSPUR Vienna; MFRU, Foundation Son:DA, Maribor 2017, Kapelica Gallery Ljubljana, 2016; 28th Exposition of New Music Brno Festival 2015; Hamelin Polska Award at International Print Triennial – Kraków. In 2019, Magda Stawarska-Beavan was commissioned to produce Reduce the Time Spent Holding, a sound piece and soundtrack for Lubaina Himid’s exhibition Work from Underneath, New Museum, New York. Last year she also had solo shows in the Polish Cultural Institute and MAG3 in Vienna and was invited to take part in Invisible Narratives (3 person show) in Newlyn Art Gallery and Sounds Like Her (ACE funded touring show, accompanied by a printed catalogue) New Art Exchange, York and Oldham galleries.

Magda Stawarska-Beavan been for many years part of the team, central to development of Printmaking in the North West. Since 2010 Magda Stawarska-Beavan’s research identifies the need of expanding dialogue of cross disciplinary practice within the existing narratives of printmaking, which are challenged by understanding that print has a long history but need not be restricted by this. Print is constantly re-invented in the studios through an open-mindedness of methodology and the ability to see and then develop the potential of combining processes and ideas rarely associated with its traditional past. As part of Artlab Contemporary Print research Magda Stawarska-Beavan worked collaboratively with artist Helen Cammock on pivotal projects during the past five years initially making her prints for Carte de Visite (2015) curated by Turner Prizewinning artist Lubaina Himid, then for a commission for Bookworks (2016) presented as part of Hull City of Culture. This dialogue between the making and the development of ideas continued in the production of Shouting in Whispers for Cubitt (2018) in London exhibition which led to led to her nomination for the Max Mara Prize and exhibition in Void (2019) in Derry which in turn led to her nomination for the Turner Prize. For the exhibition at Void Gallery Cammock was initially nominated and later won the Turner Prize in 2019. She has said that working in this way with Artlab Contemporary Print Studio shifted her practice. Magda Stawarska-Beavan exhibits internationally, most recently at New Museum in New York, Casablanca Biennale, MAG3 Project Space Vienna; Guanlan International Print Biennial – Shenzhen, China; International Print Triennial, Kraków, Poland; 16th Space International Print Biennial – OCI Museum, Seoul, Korea and 10th International Biennial of Contemporary Prints – Museum of Fine Arts of Liege, Belgium. Magda Stawarska-Beavan is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice is primarily concerned with the evocative and immersive qualities of sound. She interested in how a soundscape orients us and subconsciously embeds itself in our memories of place, enabling us to construct personal recollections and offering the possibility of conveying narrative to listeners who have never experienced a location. She works predominantly with sound, moving image and print, often connecting traditional printmaking processes with digital audio. Magda Stawarska-Beavan with Tracy Hill organises, talks, exhibitions and public workshops on a regular basis, inviting international visitors to share their practice and expertise with artists and collectors in the North West. ‘Women in Print’ a symposium was an integral part of programmed events, running alongside Lubaina Himid’s touring exhibition. Tanja Engelberts, Catriona Leahy, Anna Friðbjörnsdottir & Małgorzata Warlikowska initiated new conversations about contemporary print and its role in the debates around archive and place.