Xavier Magaldi is a Swiss artist whose background in watchmaking forms a critical element of his current artistic practice. Magaldi’s paintings are rooted in a precision reminiscent of architectural draftsmanship, while his sculptures explore the jarring juxtaposition of a horological microcosm with the monumentality of massive wood sculptures. Merging graffiti and traditional painting techniques, Magaldi is able to combine two seemingly disparate art forms into one cohesive body of work. Magaldi lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland. He draws inspiration from his foundation in graffiti art, specifically the wildstyle letter form, and his formal education in watchmaking. From his Geneva studio, Magaldi is exploring themes of the future in a way that both inspires the viewer and urges us all to examine our relationship with time. His monolithic guardian sculptures evoke a feeling of progress and stability, while his ultramodern paintings could be a look at what our cities will look like with skylines continuing to ascend. With the increasing urbanization of our world, Magaldi’s work is more relevant than ever. Time is an inherent source of inspiration in Magaldi’s work, an homage to horology which manifests itself through the time consuming detail-oriented geometric forms that appear in his paintings, as well as through the more spontaneous and free flowing gestures associated with graffiti. It is precisely this specific attention to detail and layering that highlights Magaldi’s philosophical deconstruction of the horological process as well as a subsequent literal reconstruction of its tangible intricacies. (text: Boccara Gallery)