Dutch artist Magali Reus has been creating hyper-realistic sculptures for more than a decade. She represents, redefines, enlarges and deforms everyday objects in various materials and using surprising combinations of digital, manual and industrial processes.

This publication features work from exhibitions at Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Centre d’art contemporain-la synagogue de Delme, Kunsthalle Bratislava & Atelier Calder.

With texts by Rebecca May Johnson, Filipa Ramos. Designed by Wolfe Hall.

In the spring of 2015, Magali Reus opened the first in a series of four exhibitions of new work co-commissioned and presented by SculptureCenter, New York; Hepworth Wakefield, England; Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany; and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy. The culmination of these collaborative projects is documented in this publication, marking an important chapter in the evolution of Reus’s work.

Renowned for her interest in the relationship between mass-produced articles and the human body in the context of today’s digital society, Magali Reus draws on a vast range of formal influences and references, from the domestic to the industrial, the functional to decorative, creating pieces that evolve as an accumulation and layering of sculptural details. For her, objects like fridges, padlocks, seating, and street curbs are not seen only as facilitators of our everyday actions, but also as physical receptacles for our bodies.

This publication accompanies two exhibitions of recent sculptural work by the artist Magali Reus: Hot Cottons (2017–18) at Bergen Kunsthall and As mist, description, (2018) at the South London Gallery. Featuring an essay by writer and curator Laura Mclean-Ferris and a poetic response by writer and poet Quinn Latimer as well as a fully illustrated overview of Reus’s work, this catalogue provides an in-depth exploration of the artist’s recent sculptural practice.

Producing a sculptural language that is both familiar yet unlocatable Reus draws heavily on the past and present landscape of industry and fabrication, creating forms using a plethora of materials that include: mesh, jesmonite, cotton, steel, rubber, leather. Interested in collaborative processes of making, from virtual design to handmade fabrication, Reus combines sculptural games with material explorations.

Designed by A Practice for Everyday Life.