Born in New Caledonia, Magali Feuga is a French artist based on Australia’s Sunshine Coast. Her figurative practice explores and activates emotional depth in both subject and observer.
Growing up aboard her parent’s sailboat, Magali’s curiosity in art developed as her artist father encouraged her creative pursuits. She studied art in Nice in the late 90s, and her practice has evolved through self–instruction, influenced by further travel over two decades as a nomadic private chef.
After settling in Australia, Magali began to focus primarily on art, with people emerging as a frequent symbol in her body of work. She continues to dwell on the human form through values of self-expression and connection. Portraits and figures, created mostly with acrylic and mixed media, convey vivid emotions through light and expressions.
Finding a constant source of inspiration in people, her work focusses on a portrayal of the human form that values internal worlds and unique ways of being. With each emotionally charged portrait and figure aiming to manifest a sense of humanity and connection.
She draws from social and creative sources to inform her representation of emotion and spirit. Influenced by the Renaissance and Expressionism, she also likes to borrow elements from graphic design and street art. Travel has inspired her focus on the human figure, too. Growing up on her parents’ boat around the world led to less of a love for places than of their people.
With an openness for original outcomes, she experiments with expressive features and poses using various techniques and mediums with a tendency for acrylic, ink, marker pens, oil sticks, and occasionally spray paint and collage. Yet, her approach is typically not wedded to certain methodologies but instead pursues energy and visual impact over realistic depiction.
A portrait is not just an image of someone. It is also about feelings and thoughts. Offering room to interpretation, her body of work asks viewers to realise their individuality and consider their link to others.
These representational and spiritual introspections have featured in Magali’s pasts exhibitions and art prizes over recent years and appear online via her website and social media.
With ongoing projects and upcoming shows, Magali is dedicated to developing her practice and hopes to further question what it means to be human.
