Magnus Sodamin

Where are you from and where are you based?

I was born first generation in Manhattan of Norwegian/Austrian parents. Now I am based in Miami, Florida.

What do you love most about Miami?

The ocean is so close. It’s the best escape from the city to another viewpoint. Fishing, canoeing, sailing are all great luxuries with living in a city.

What are your top three hang out spots?

The studio, my mom’s/ dad’s, wherever friends can be found.

Please share some of your career highlights with us

I feel the greatest when there is a reaction to my work that I did not expect. When I see joy in others’ reactions toward my work, that is when I feel the greatest, that is when the work has left me and lives on for someone else.

You are represented by Primary Projects. How did the connection come about?

Mutual friends connected us, weaving us together. Our first show together was Salon de Notre Societe. We are working on various projects soon to be revealed.

How would you describe your art?

Ephemeral, tangible and obscure.

What’s your favorite medium and why?  Magnus Sodamin

Most of my paintings are mixed media, because it leaves room for exceptions. Variety is the spice of life.

Your large-scale paintings are very dominant and beautiful. What makes them stand out?

When I’m painting, anything or nothing may happen, somewhere on these trips I can recognize the magical that underlies the mundane. Through this search I feel somewhere I can breath life into my works and this is all I could possibly hope for.

Do you personally collect art?  Which artists do you find inspiring and interesting?

When I was taking classes at Miami Dade community college, before I attended New World, I was working with a mentor, Craig Kirk, who is a founding arts teacher at Mast Academy. He gave me many of his old drawings and I responded to them immediately. It was influential to my work. There is a different relationship living with works that are not my own, and sometimes I can appreciate work even more when it is not my own; there is a relief in that. However, there is only so much one can have but I have been blessed to have what I’ve been given.  

What do you have planned for Art Basel?

I don’t know yet, but we are all most powerful in the present.