YIGSY
MAGALY

About the Artist
Yigsy Magaly (b. 1998, San Salvador, El Salvador; raised in New Jersey) is a visual artist exploring the emotional connection between line, color, and form. Starting with photorealistic portraiture, she later developed a minimal and expressive style that captures feeling through flat colors and intricate linework. A graduate of Mason Gross School of the Arts, her work has been exhibited across New Jersey and New York, with work presently on display at Newark Airport’s Terminal A. Her practice continues to explore how abstraction can serve as a language for emotional expression.
"My work focuses on the emotional experiences we carry in our bodies. Through my faceless figures, the Blanxs, I use simplified forms, quiet gestures, and atmospheric color to express feelings that often go unspoken. Removing facial features allows the body itself to hold the emotion, creating space for viewers to project their own memories or internal states onto the figure.
The patterned backgrounds in my paintings act as emotional environments. Their repetitive, shifting forms are influenced by textile traditions from my childhood as well as contemporary abstraction where repetition becomes a form of grounding. These patterns mirror thoughts, tension, and energy, surrounding the figures in a way that reflects how our minds and emotions shape the spaces we move through.
I create scenes that sit between stillness and intensity. Moments of waiting, disconnecting, revealing, or turning inward become visual narratives without relying on literal expression. By pairing minimal figures with dense and rhythmic surroundings, I aim to show how complex our internal worlds can be. My work offers a place where viewers can recognize parts of themselves, even in the quietest moments."




