Gina Magid uses elements of drawing and a fairly dark palette to make paintings where both the paint application and subject matter feel lived in. Her brushwork is basic and straightforward and doesn’t go out of the way to hide earlier developments, and her foregrounded subject matter makes no effort to deny the obviousness of her entertainment of a pipe not being just a pipe. While all the paintings exhibited are relatively slow in tone and pace and compositionally cultivate moving the viewer’s attention and thoughtfulness into or onto the resonance of the object represented, it is worth noting that in the two figurative works, one a portrait of Nina Simone and the other a portrait of the artist, both are wearing rings that visually counterpoint their open and forward-gazing eyes that transmit back to the viewer all that they put on them.

Gina Magid lives in Brooklyn and attended UC Santa Cruz for her BA (1992) and Pratt Institute for her MFA (1996). She began exhibiting with Feature Inc. in 2000, and this is her third one-person exhibition with the gallery.