Amy Magee (b. 1997) is a British painter whose practice lives at the intersection of intuition and art-historical memory. Magee draws on the landscapes and artistic heritage of Southern of France, while reinterpreting classical principles of composition, ornament, and light, reworking them through the lens of contemporary abstraction. By bringing these two distinct influences into conversation, her work creates a dialogue between place, tradition, and expression.

Before relocating to the South of France, she lived in a dense urban environment shaped by the grit and immediacy of street art, which informed the textural urgency of her early work. Immersion in the South’s light, beauty, and historical stillness brought a profound shift: the Provençal landscape infused her palette with breath and luminosity. She began to explore trompe l’œil — “to deceive the eye” — a tradition woven into European visual culture, by reimagining the elements of landscape (pigment, gesture and perspective) within the language of contemporary abstraction.

Her process begins with sourcing references from classical paintings, approached under intentional time constraints so that light, pigment, and rhythm are absorbed fleetingly, then recalled purely through intuition. From these impressions she constructs canvases of broad contrasts, spatial rhythms, and soaring moments that guide the eye across the surface. Some passages are rendered in detail, others left raw, preserving tactility of the painting process. What emerges are works that operate as visual memories: fleeting experiences slowed into paint, where petal-like forms, atmospheric veils, and gestural flourishes drift across imagined terrains. The compositions envelop the viewer in an environment that is both deeply present and curiously placeless.

Magee earned a BSc in Psychology from the University of Exeter before completing a residency at the New York School of Visual Arts. Fascinated with the human mind and the ways we process visual information, Magee resonated with the ideology and process of the Abstract Expressionists; she treats painting as a site of unfiltered emotion and trace of presence. Her paintings are not narratives but experiences, inviting sensation over interpretation. 

The work invites communion — a ‘place’ for shared vulnerability between myself and the viewer. Each brush mark says: Here is where I was. Here is how I moved for this moment — giving the viewer permission to be just as present. The paintings offer ambiguous spaces to dwell and feel, where one is not simply looking at something, but inside something.

To date, Magee has exhibited in London, New York, and Florence, and remains the best-selling artist at Battersea Art Fair. Her work now resides in private collections worldwide, and she continues to collaborate with both private collectors and commercial clients on commissioned projects. Recent exhibitions include SVA NYC Group Open Studio Exhibition (New York, 2025), Alexander Palace Art Fair (London, 2025), Battersea Affordable Art Fair, Spring (London, 2025), and Museo Bellini (Florence, 2023).