Born in Lebanon, 1982, Magda Malkoun is currently living and working between Dubai and Beirut. Magda is a multi-faceted artist who combines her interest in photography and sculpture in her artworks. She uses different types of material and texture not only as tools to paint with, but also to create forms. Magda’s body of work encompasses a series of figurative and abstract art inspired by the conflicts and the bonds one creates with the places, events and faces encountered. Her contemporary work is recognizable with her signature of painstakingly organized photo collages to form various abstract portraits.
Magda’s works were acquired by collectors in Beirut, Dubai, Ajman, Saudi Arabia, New York, and France. Malkoun won the best emerging artist awards in Word Art Dubai 2021, and Best Art Exhibition in 2024 by FITNFT Art Gallery in Dubai. Magda exhibited her work in the UAE at Art Dubai Digital 2022 and 2023 and is part of MIA Art Collection. Her work has been shortlisted by Sotheby’s Institute of Art as finalists and exhibited in New York at Arte Azulejo. She has previously exhibited at BULGARI contemporary Art award at Van De Goudenberg Art gallery, Dubai culture x Morrow collective’s first NFT exhibition in Al Safa & Design library, Gateway to the Metaverse in House Of Wisdom Shajrah, and Museum of the Future. She also exhibited her NFT work in the Vellum / LA art gallery in Los Angeles, United States in April 2022 and she was selected out of 80 artists to be featured on their billboard in LA.Magda was selected to promote peace and sustainability at the UNESCO Art Camp Andorra in March 2022 and July 2023 and her work was featured during the UN COP28 in the Women’s Pavillon in November 2023 in the UAE. Her work has been featured in Elle Decoration, Gallery Magazine, Laha Magazine, Tribe magazine, Harper’s Bazaar Brazil, Marie-Claire Arabia, Sayidati and L’Orient Le Jour.
” My work explores the psychology behind the conflicts and the bonds one creates with the places, events and faces encountered while in displacement. With influences as diverse as Gebran Khalil Gebran, Gustav Klimt, Modigliani and Picasso, new synergies are created from both simplistic and transcendent structures.
I was always fascinated by the endless oscillation of the human condition, from what makes us who we are and the psychology behind each moment of encounter and their impact on how we exchange on a sociological and environmental level with one another as individuals or collectively as a nation.
Studying what makes us who we are and how nations thrive or fail leaving only a sense of decadence and the chance of a new reality. What starts out as destructive soon becomes rousing into a manifesto of hope and growth, leaving a sense of perspective and an inevitability of a new order. Just like the double edge role of collective memory, while it creates delusional ideologies in one civilization it can also ignite growth and innovation in others.
Through a painstaking collage of intuitively deconstructed fragments of my own photographs carefully selected based on color, shape, and symbolism, weavering portraits of women with diverse identities are clarified. My mixed media portraits are sculpted with photographs that represent cherished memories, lessons, and visions, testifying to the endless possibilities of our culture. Each step is a unique expression of my personal experiences, a journey of self-discovery, and a powerful message of hope and tolerance. “
