Magdalena Morey is a contemporary mixed-media artist known for her abstract expressionist style that explores emotion, transformation, and the beauty of imperfection. Born in 1974 in Lublin, Poland, Morey was inspired by the landscapes around her. Morey grew up close to the land, playing with stones, sticks and mud, and she continues to live surrounded by nature today. Art has become her way of maintaining a lifelong conversation with the natural world.
Figurative abstraction has been a continual undercurrent of Morey’s portfolio ever since she was a student. When studying her painting Masters at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Morey focused on creating a series of huge abstract figures, and discovered that she was able to express so much of her inner life through the medium of painting- something that she found almost impossible to articulate it in any other way. Morey is now based in Asturias, Spain after fulfilling a life-long dream to move out there.
Morey’s art blends abstraction with figuration, inviting viewers to experience a sense of vulnerability and connection through her use of mixed media, and merging colour. Not every moment needs to be a high-contrast firework to hold meaning; some experiences, and some artworks, are more muted and monochromatic. These varying colour combinations for Morey, draw an analogy to the events of life.
“My work, whether abstract landscapes or abstract figures, begins from the same place; a response to something alive, changing and never fixed. I don’t see the landscape as something to be copied, nor the figure as something to be simply described. Both are experienced as events, shaped by rhythm and movement and always open to transformation.”
Although individuals may appear distinct and wildly different to one another, Morey believes we are all unified by our experience of similar emotions: loneliness and happiness, creativity and stagnation. She is fascinated by how colour can communicate and share these universal feelings sparked by life’s events.
“My figures are based on memories and sensations and figurative work has always been a medium through which I can find a profound connection to myself and my emotions. I remember people as energies and, for me, those translate as colours.”
There is a deep satisfaction for Magdalena Morey in creating art, it offers a cross-section of her inner world. She doesn’t view individual figurative paintings as “complete” objects, but rather as snapshots of a continual, evolving sense of self. Some elements are highly detailed and focused, while others remain blurred; some details are distant, some highlighted like flashes of inspiration, and others ambiguous or entirely ignored.
Her process is rooted in movement and energy. Magdalena Morey uses strong colours, flowing lines, and layered textures, to create a sense of continuity. The lines that run through her work suggest threads and fibres, veins and roots—bonds and connections woven through both the landscape, and the figures within it. These lines convey rhythm, like stitching or dancing, and reflect the sense of life and connection she finds in nature and in her personal relationships.
“What unites all of my work is this search for movement, energy, and connection. Whether it takes the form of a figure or a landscape, I want each painting to embody a sense of life’s shifting rhythms, always unfolding and never still.”
Here at Calken, we have six unique figurative artworks available from Morey’s captivating collection, Morey’s work is more than just art, but a remarkable note on human connection. Browse the collection now.