Artportal.hu

Biography
1972 • born in Hajdúböszörmény, Hungary
works and lives in Berlin
Studies
1993-98 • Hungarian Academy Of Fine Arts, faculty of painting, Budapest
prof. Zoltán Tölg-Molnár
1998-2000 • MA degree in the Hungarian Academy Of Fine Arts
prof. Zoltan Tölg-Molnár and guest prof. George Peck
1999 • postgraduate studies in the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nürnberg
prof. Diet Sayler

Letter-mosaic Painting

All centuries have got their own tragical moments in the history. For us nowadays people probably the 20th Century is the most important from all because that is our instant heritage for our present days. We are currently facing a time of transition. There is much rhetoric in the air and talk of crisis. This has both perceived and real, lived effects – economic, social, and political. It is indicative of the insidious power of capitalism that it has affected so many arenas of our lived experience. In the attempt to critique capitalism’s strong hold and to move beyond an individualistic apathy, there seems to be an increased desire for social renewal. The starting point of my work is the observation of human behavor at economic-social-political downswings, the nature of hysteria, decadence, despair, lies, and the infinite blackhole we are looking as a frightening vision.

In  the focus of my interest is using clichées both in narration and practice of painting  itself. How can we fill up clichées with life and emotions? I am interested in creating atmosphere in which diferent elements metamorphose into their opposites: the safe become unsafe, the familiar is strange, the beauty is beast, and light become dark. In my work I try to a combine the personal and impersonal balancing of the specific and generic, where everything is familiar but nothing is recognizable.

My receint paintings are consisted of three different layers. The first layer is the vivid coloured strict lines of hand-painted letters, which are existed as a mosaic- structured image. The second layer is  the sense of letters as a coherent text, and the third layer is the painterly context of the previous two layers. The image-layer is a kind of surface of the painting where the subjective experience and the momentums of the impersonal outside world are dissolved in the emptiing of portrayal and narration, as well as the colorful kaleidoscope of small letters. Since it often takes great efforts to identify the details of the portrayals, the paintings provide space for the creative imagination of the viewers, thereby involving them in the creative process. During this peculiar interaction, the image world of the creator is complemented and made a whole by images from the viewers’ own memories. The text-layer as a decontextualized emblematic or expressive fragments of content goes beyond the surface. Completing the image-layer, though the textfragments are never directly connected to a particular figure of within the image, rather there are more blured and more associative relation between text and image. Sometimes certain repeated words become key-words or the title of the painting help to recognize individual connections. Instead of using mass media chanels, these fragmented texts are appropriated from more subjective and uncontrolled sources, several blogs or  thematic internet forums, where my fears of our world is communicated by other people`s words. The painterly context layer is  created by a hand paint process and by the fact that all this action is placed to the tradition of art. This visual structure can generate solid forms in several levels of expression, from the most sophisticated pieces to the most radical ones.

(Gábor A. Nagy)

Individual Exhibitions
1999 • Les Complementaires, Batofar, Paris (with Anna Szigethy)
2000 • Baby Doll, Stúdió Gallery, Budapest
2001 • Under Construction, Goethe Institut Inter Nationes, Budapest [with Gyula Domián]
Lumiére Obscure, Hotel K und K Opera, Budapest
Opening, Gallery Illárium, Budapest
2002 • Corso, Gallery Godot, Budapest
2004 • MMS, Gallery Godot, Budapest
Compressed Painting, MATÁV Exhibiting Hall, Budapest
2008 • Grammar Of Glamour, Gallery Godot, Budapest

Selected Gruop Exhibitions
1997 • Visiting, City Gallery, Pécs • Nachwuchs, Haus Ungarn, Berlin • Staircase-light-geometry-70’s-Budapest, Hungarian Academy Of Fine Arts, Budapest
1998 • Nature And Art, Gallery Medium, Bratislava • Cartographers, Ernst Museum, Budapest • Space Formats 6., House Of The Budapest Gallery, Budapest • Mansard, Kunsthalle, Budapest
1999 • MA Fine Arts Students In The London Institute, London • Institute Gallery, London
2000 • Crosstalk, Kunsthalle, Budapest • Dialogue, Kunsthalle, Budapest
2001 • Rome Holliday, Accademia d’Ungherese, Rome
2002 • Stilllife, Gallery Godot, Budapest • Ex-Röltex, Deák Palace, Budapest • Four Painters, Museum Ignác Tragor, Vác
2005 • Click-a-Cliché, Galerie Reiner Tisch, Berlin
2007 • Junge Kunst Aus Ungarn,  Die Drostei, Pinneberg-Hamburg
2009 • Neue Figuration, Collegium Hungaricum, Wien • Digital Agora, Olof  Palme House, Budapest

Awards, Scholarships
1999 • Hermann Lipót Prize • Scolarship of the Marie de Paris in the Cite International des Arts
2000 • Erasmus-Socrates Foundation, Nürnberg
2001 • Scholarship of Hungarian Academy in Rome
2003 • Scholarship of Budapest Gallery and Stadt Frankfurt am Main

Selected Bibliography
János Sturcz: Két magyar-két japán, Új Művészet 1996 August
János Sturcz: Látogatás, Jelenkor, 1998 February
Dóra Maurer: Térképzetek, Balkon, 1998 December
Lívia Páldi: Tetőtér, Balkon, 1998 December
Orsolya Merhán: Baby Doll, Exindex, 2000 May
Gergely Nagy: Széthull és összeáll, Műértő, 2000 May
József Készman: Under Construction, Balkon, 2001 June-July
Erika Baglyas: Igen is, nem is, Balkon, 2001 November
Ibolya Erdős: A pixeltréner, Impresszum, 2004 May
Vera Szeszlér: A tömörített tigris, Médiamix, 2004 August
Ibolya Erdős: „...nagy vízben kis hal...”, Balkon, 2008 November-December.

Contact
address:
Torstr 102
10119 Berlin
mobile: +49 176 206 237 14
e-mail: gabora.nagy@freemail.hu