Born in Poland in 1976, Magda Stawarska’s multi-disciplinary practice combines moving image, sound, silkscreen prints and painting.

For nearly two decades, UK-based artist Magda Stawarska has explored the threshold of memory, the sanctioned shape of history, and the active experience of listening. Through sound and performance, moving image, photography, painting, and printmaking, the artist unfolds overlooked and contested narratives of the past through her practice of “inner listening”. 

Stawarska’s distinct approach to artmaking often begins with explorations of cities. Traversing self-directed routes, the artist has often been compared to a flaneur—moving through each site, cultivating a rhythmic score that reveals a densely layered urban topography. These situated scenes become the basis for a distinct form of language—one of conjured imaginaries. The artist and her carefully chosen collaborators unbuckle the seams of the aural landscape, using personal reflection and language, which the artist uses to create installations that constellate active feelings.

Stawarska recently had a solo exhibition Drift (2024) at Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix during London Gallery Weekend. She participated in a duo show with Lubaina Himid Plaited Time Deep Water, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, (2023). Her two-venue solo exhibition, Close Up/Long Shot, took place at the Polish Institute and Cross Cut at the Projectroom MAG3 Vienna, Austria (2019) and To Follow at the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland (2018).

In 2021 Stawarska made significant contributions to the Lubaina Himid exhibition and catalogue at Tate Modern by creating five sonic environments within the architecture of the museum spaces.

Her recent group shows include: A Fine Toothed Comb, HOME, Manchester (2023); Rewinding Internationalism, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Holland and Villa Arson, Nice, France, (2022-2023); Risquons-Tout, WIELS Contemporary Art Centre Brussels (2020); INVISIBLE NARRATIVES; New Conversations about Time and Place, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance, UK, (2019); 4th International Biennale of Casablanca, Morocco (2018); Sounds Like Her, an exhibition which toured in the UK starting at New Art Exchange, Nottingham, then on to York Art Gallery, and finally at Gallery Oldham, (2017-2020).

She is a Research Fellow for Artlab Contemporary Print Studios at the University of Central Lancashire.

In 2024, the Government Art Collection acquired Lina Poletti Strada and in 2020 Bracka 40 was purchased by the Arts Council Art Collection. Bracka 40 was included in exhibitions Right About Now and Found Cities, Lost Objects; Women in the City, the latter was exhibited at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Southampton City Art Gallery and Leeds Art Gallery, (2022 – 2024).  Other public collections include: The British Library Sound & Vision Collection, London; China Printmaking Museum, Shenzhen; Association of the Museums of Painting and Sculpture; Istanbul, Kraków International Print Triennial Collection, Kraków and TONSPUR Kunstverein, Vienna. 

She lives and works in the UK.