A Considerable Conversation with David Magán

David Magán portrait, Burgos Contemporary Art Center (CAB) 2020 © David Magán Studio

David Magán was born in 1979. Magán grew up in Madrid, where he trained at the La Palma School of Art between 1999 and 2004, specializing in sculptural techniques in wood and metal. In 2002 he participated in an artistic stained glass course, and 2008 in a glass sculpture course at La Real Fábrica del Vidrio de La Granja, taught by the sculptor Lukas Mjartan which included the field of sculpture and installation, where the use of plane, color, transparency, and light stands out were explored. He currently works between Guadalajara and Madrid, where he directs his studio with his brother Kiko Magán, who has been an essential part of it since 2009.

He has done numerous solo projects, such as Square. Galería Pep Llabrés (Mallorca, Spain, 2022); In Praise of Shadows. As Quintas (Asturias, Spain, 2022); Immaterial Architectures. Museo Francisco Sobrino (Guadalajara, Spain, 2021); Light Object. Galería Cayón (Madrid, 2021); Hard-line. Galería Cayón (Madrid, 2021); Matter Matters. CAB (Burgos, Spain, 2020); David Magán. Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie Online (Bielefeld, Germany, 2020); The Weight of Colour. Galería Cayón (Madrid, 2017); Primary Interferences. CEART (Fuenlabrada, Spain, 2016); Primary Cube. Galería Cayón (Madrid, 2016); The Invented Colour. FCNV (Segovia, Spain, 2014); Domesticated Transparency. MAVA (Alcorcón, Spain, 2013); Fragment of Light. Galería Cayón (Madrid, 2012); About the Plane and Space. CEART (Fuenlabrada, Spain, 2010).

Among the international exhibitions whose work has been part, it is worth highlighting: Parra & Romero 10th Anniversary (Ibiza, Spain,, 2022); Distant Geometries. Pep Llarés Gallery (Mallorca, Spain, 2022); New Paths of the MAC: pulse and impulse of a collection. Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid (Spain, 2022); Light Unlocked. Rocket Gallery (London, 2021); Images from the rear-view mirror. CentroCentro (Madrid, 2021); Takeover Spain. Marión Gallery (Panama, 2021); 2021 reloaded. Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie (Bielefeld, Germany, 2021); Line in Suspension. Marión Gallery (Panama, 2020); Behind the Wall. XIII Biennial of Havana (Cuba, 2019); (pre) Texts. Otazu Foundation (Navarra, Spain, 2018); Transparency. Galerie Denise René (Paris, France, 2016); Interaction. Centro Dados Negros (Ciudad Real, Spain, 2016); Colours. Hempel Glasmuseum (Denmark, 2015); Glass & Architecture. International Glass Biennale (Strasbourg, France, 2015); European Glass Experience (Finland and Italy, 2014-2015); Constructive Art, Kinetic Art. Espace Expression (Miami, USA, 2014); Hello! Spain, Seongnam Arts Centre (South Korea, 2013).

He has participated since 2011 in ARCOmadrid (Spain) and has been present at international fairs such as Art Berlin Fair, Germany; ArtLima, Peru; Ch.ACO, Chile; MACO Zone, Mexico; PAINT London, England; PAINT Miami, USA; Art Toronto, Canada; Art Marbella, Spain; Estampa, Spain.

His works can be found in many museums and private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid, the Tomás y Valiente Art Center (CEART), the Alcorcón Glass Art Museum (MAVA), the National Glass Center Foundation (FCNV), the Murano Glass Museum, the NH Collection of Contemporary Art and the Kablanc Otazu Art Foundation.

I had the pleasure of asking David if any poets or authors impacted him visually, how he found his artistic style, and so much more.

UZOMAH: How does your creative process fit into your typical day?

DAVID: I am a person with a fairly strict work routine. I love my job and dedicate many hours a day to it. I usually take breaks from the more physical part of producing work to reflect and slowly think about new ideas and projects. Although when we tackle more complex projects from the studio, such as working on new series, solo shows, or commissions, we can spend entire weeks developing ideas.

U: Are there any authors or poets that impact you visually?

D: There are many. We live in a world full of stimuli where the cultural offer seems endless. I try to discover new books, music, films, and visual artists every day that interest me and contribute something to the vital moment in which I find myself.

As for the artistic references that interest me the most right now, I could mention artists like Larry Bell, Anish Kapoor, Olafur Eliasson, Alice Aycock, Timo Nasseri, or James Turrel. In general, artists who work in the expanded field of sculpture, with a strong formal component but who at the same time deal with broader themes such as geometry, mathematics, architecture, emptiness, light, the importance of the viewer in the artwork, or the history of art itself.

Immaterial Architectures exhibition view, Francisco Sobrino Museum 2021 © David Magán Studio

U: How did you find your own artistic style?

D: From constant experimentation, with an open mind and without complexes.

After studying art for 7 years and specializing in metal and wood sculpture techniques, I took a short stained glass course and fell in love with flat glass. I was drawn to the material's ability to capture light and color within; it was ethereal; it was like a color caught in the air. From that moment, I began to experiment with this translucent material, and I realized that it allowed me to work the volume of the sculpture from a totally different point of view. Its use made it possible to generate multiple layers that allowed the other side to be seen and interrelated, mixing colors like a painter's palette. By adding this new layer, it was as if a fourth dimension was added to the object, where the viewer's position and the light and space conditions completely transformed the perception of the sculpture.

My first approach to developing my own artistic language was through sculpture, but I soon began to experiment with photography, drawing, video, 3D animation, installations, and painting.

Matter Matters exhibition view, Burgos Contemporary Art Center (CAB) 2020 © David Magán Studio

U: Can you explain how you developed an installation idea and brought the idea to life?

D: For a few years now, in the studio my brother Kiko Magán and I run, we have introduced digital and 3D design tools for creating artwork. Today they are a fundamental tool in my process.

I usually start with a drawing or a model, then take the ideas to the computer and work from there. In the case of installations with suspended elements or those that work with light, the idea development exercise usually starts directly from the computer since it would be a very complex and slow process to represent the idea in drawing or building models. Also, when it comes to a site-specific for a specific architectural space, the first thing is to recreate that space in the 3D program, and we start with the ideas from scratch. It is a working method similar to that used in architecture.

Kiko, who is an expert in handling this type of program, is the one who works directly with it while I am directing the idea at a creative level. Once the idea is closed, a series of rendered photographs of the installation in space is generated, giving us a clear and precise idea of what the result will be like. From there, we begin with the materialization of the piece, taking production plans that are sent to the different workshops with which we collaborate. Afterward, all the parts are taken to the studio, where the final assembly is carried out, and the anchoring systems and plans for assembly are prepared.

The Weight of Colour exhibition view, Cayón 2017 © David Magán Studio

U: How do you use plane, color, transparency, and light to make it stand out?

D: The use of the plane, color, transparency, and light is, indeed, a constant in my work. On the one hand, they are the central themes, and I like to give them a conscious presence, a deliberate and self-referential use in practically all my production. But at the same time, they are the basic vocabulary, the building blocks, from which I start to address other topics, providing another layer of concepts; they can be linked to research on forms -such as the Isometric and Hard-line series, research on the repetition of geometric elements-, or towards more abstract concepts such as perspective, transformation, projection, the physicality of light, the experimentation through physical phenomena, arrangements based on mathematical rules, the ethereal, the architectural or the interrelation of architecture with the object.

In addition, I am very interested in working on all these concepts in various media and formats -directly or symbolically- such as sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, or video art.

U: Your use of different colored light sources and even trapping and modulating that light in space is unique. How did you come up with the exploration artistically?

D: It is curious how sometimes the jump between the different artistic media is capable of opening doors towards conceptual reflections that make you experiment in other creative disciplines.

In my case, the first investigations related to the use of light came from research with the photographic medium, where I developed a series of photographs called Light and Shadow from 2011. Later, I worked on a series of sculptures, installations, and videos called Binaries, which led to a deeper investigation of light. It is from there that I begin to experiment with different materials and new light sources, as in the Spectrum series, Light Objects, Immaterial Arquitectures, or Dual Figures, on the installation side, or like the Ethereal Paintings or the Ethereal Traces, through light boxes or photography.

To this day, all these ideas are still valid in my work, with the new series that I am developing. They are intentional turns in my artistic career that try to broaden and enrich my artistic language toward new lines of research that seem to have no limit.

Parra & Romero 10th Anniversary (Part II) exhibition view, Parra & Romero 2022 © David Magán Studio

U: Why did you choose to incorporate acrylic in your process? How has it benefited your art?

D: Acrylic allowed me, at a certain point in my career, to be able to make pieces of greater dimension and greater versatility in terms of the forms to be made, without the problems associated with the brittleness of craft glass, which I used to use in the beginning, and with even higher purity.

It is important to know, in my opinion, the different materials that exist in the market to be able to assess at all times which are more interesting for each project. Today, for example, I use colored laminated glass for those sculptures that require the solidity and robustness necessary for certain types of anchoring or that are self-tensioning. It is also a suitable material for the outdoors, like polycarbonate. Both comply with safety regulations to be located in public spaces.

Matter Matters exhibition view, Burgos Contemporary Art Center (CAB) 2020 © David Magán Studio

U: What is the most vital tool in your studio, and why?

D: It is, without a doubt, the Blender computer program that we use to design and materialize all our exhibitions, sculptures, installations, and practically every project that comes out of the studio. It is a tool that allows us to have each idea defined in such a realistic way that it can be confused with reality itself and allows us to make a huge number of definitive artworks without the need to carry them out until it is necessary—leaving for the future a legacy that would otherwise be impossible.

 For more information about David’s artwork, please visit his site. Also, please follow him on Instagram and give him a like on Facebook.