Karen the cat

Karen is the cat who lives in a permanent state of “I’d like to speak to the manager,” even when no one’s done anything. As the hairdresser to influencers, she knows every secret worth knowing, and she’ll absolutely tell you—unless there’s a horse nearby, in which case she’s far too offended to continue. Come Friday night, she drops the attitude just enough to sip prosecco with her suburban crew and recap the week’s chaos like the tiny, dramatic queen she is.

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Jen Malone, working under the artist name Magic Coco, is a Sydney-based mixed-media artist known for her distinctive, unconventional animals and richly imagined interiors.

Working primarily with watercolour, acrylic, ink and mixed media, Jen creates paintings that sit somewhere between the familiar and the wonderfully strange. Horses stretch across star-covered rugs, dogs take possession of beautifully designed rooms, birds appear where they probably shouldn’t, and everyday domestic spaces become slightly magical.

At the heart of Jen’s work is character. Her animals are deliberately imperfect, expressive and often a little awkward — creatures with their own personalities rather than polished representations. Bold colour, simplified forms, hand-drawn marks and unexpected details give the work its unmistakable Magic Coco language.

Jen’s creative practice also extends to ceramics, and she regularly works from the ceramics studio at Western Sydney University’s Hawkesbury campus. Her experience across painting, drawing, sculpture and clay continues to influence the strong shapes and tactile quality of her work.

Magic Coco is about finding beauty, humour and a little magic in the imperfect. Each work is intended to feel like its own small world — strange, joyful and completely individual.