From neo-avantgarde prints to images of Islamophobia, varied modern artworks fill diverse viewing spaces citywide this summertime, and our new seasonal roundup of Budapest gallery exhibits presents a variety of such diverse displays that all welcome the public with free entry. While most of these shows highlight the works of established or up-and-coming Hungarian artists, international visionaries are also included in our coverage – here are our top picks of where to go to catch up with Budapest’s blooming art scene this summer.
1/8
“Out of Night’s Darkness, Jingling”
The work of Tamás Jovanovics can be interpreted as illusionistic space-fields created by colored pencil lines. The lines are in a fixed, strictly formal order which gives a primary role to the colors and the rhythms created by them, evoking ideas of musical beats and sequences. In the space defined by these colors, the sense of gravity dissolves, and a floating, timeless field unfolds in front of the viewer, counterpointing the heavy reality of the wall around it. And so, the viewer is taken out of the everyday, earth-centered world, and finds himself or herself in a timeless, picturesque, open space enmeshed by metaphysical line structures and ethereal, colored vibrations.
Where: Várfok Gallery – Budapest 1012, Várfok u. 11
The exhibition can be visited until June 18th.
2/8
“Beasty Models”
Trafó Gallery is hosting the first Hungarian solo show of one of the most non-conformist artists of the Slovakian young art scene, Radovan Čerevka. Čerevka’s career is entangled with his hometown Košice, where he is now teaching, and where he founded the artist collective Kassa Boys in 2006 with Peter Vrábel’ and Tomáś Makara. Their activity has usually been surrounded by scandals which is due to the fact that they work with the taboos of Slovakian politics, using overidentification as part of their critical methodology. Čerevka’s individual work received appreciation through the trendsetteing Slovak Oskar Čepan Award in 2013. Čerevka’s solo exhibition is dealing with the images of Islamophobia, and it also gives an overview of the artist’s recent installation practice in which the language of games merges with that of different media.
Where: Trafó Gallery – Budapest 1094, Tűzoltó u. 11
The exhibition can be visited until June 19th.
3/8
“Limbo Fever”
During its first year of operation, Horizont Gallery organized solo exhibitions of the works of its represented and collaborating artists, a practice that they plan to continue from the next fall season. “Limbo Fever”, opening this summer, is the gallery’s first group exhibition that presents some of the newest and freshest works of the past weeks and months from the participating artists: Gábor Erdélyi, Botond Keresztesi, Adrian Kiss, Zsófia Anna Kollár, and Gábor Kristóf.
Where: Horizont Gallery – Budapest 1066, Mozsár u. 1
The exhibition opens on June 15th and can be visited through July 20th.
4/8
Chimera Project
“Intermarium” is an exhibition addressing phantasms and images employed by Central European countries when they wish to define their position towards Western Europe and other countries of the region. In the second chapter prepared especially for Chimera Project, the exhibition focuses on the dynamics of artists’ groups being seen as a micro example for a macro-scale phenomenon. Taking as a motto phrase from Rafani “Our union is a higher form of individuality”, the organizers would like to explore how the model of an empire embodies the higher needs of post-Soviet democracies and why is it so present in central-European context. The selection of works will be enriched by new objects by Little Warsaw and several pieces from Julie Chovin and Stach Szumski. Chimera Project will also introduce archives of Rafani group to a wider audience by organizing a video screening event and artists’ talk.
Where: Chimera Project – Budapest 1072, Klauzál Square 5
The exhibition opens on June 16th.
5/8
“Shifts”
Imre Bak is one of the most important artists of the Hungarian neo-avantgarde, a member of the legendary Zuglói Kör (Zugló Circle) and the IPARTERV generation. His career started back in the ’60s, when he was influenced mostly by the hard edge and the color field painting styles. With only a few exceptions, he has devoted his oeuvre to geometric abstraction. Until the ’70s he created his compositions under the aegis of American minimalism; after that his painting further evolved by combining the overseas and the European non-figurative traditions. In the ’80s, influenced by postmodernism, he started using a very versatile set of motifs, including elements related to Art Nouveau, Baroque, and even folk art and Hungarian painting traditions. From the ’90s he created compositions related to building structures; later he turned to emphasizing the depths of space. The exhibition at acb attachment presents a selection of prints that he made between 1968 and 1983. In the screen prints and offset prints on display, the motifs, compositions, and their variations characteristic of the artist’s paintings are clearly outlining and allow the viewer to gain insight into all of Imre Bak’s artistic periods.
Where: acb attachment – Budapest 1067, Eötvös u. 2
The exhibition opens on June 16th and can be visited through July 28th.
6/8
“Our Heart Is a Foreign Country”
The international group exhibition of tranzit.hu, “Our Heart Is a Foreign Country” presents the intimate field of play that unfolds in friendships; a place where we can depart from the expectations, ideals, and norms of society, and can really be ourselves. The exhibition gives a peek into the mysterious universe of role shifts and mischief that lies beyond the normative spheres of political control, the law, the church, and the family, all responsible for passing on cultural patterns. At the same time, it points to the liberating power of this versatile and personalized mode of human connection in a culture where modes of experiencing love and intimacy are determined by moral codes, institutionalized rituals, and the legal framework of marriage. The exhibition also investigates the potential for social critique that lies within friendship as a form of connection that is pure and exists for itself, and in which participants are equal and aid each other in the process of self-realization. The list of participating artists and performers include Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, Anetta Mona Chişa & Lucia Tkáčová, Elmgreen & Dragset, G. B. Jones & Bruce LaBruce, Rodolf Hervé, Tamás Király, pr group, Karol Radziszewski, Andi Schmied, Lilla Szász, Ryan Trecartin, and Jana Želibská.
Where: FKSE Studio Gallery – Budapest 1077, Rottenbiller u. 35
The exhibition opens on June 16th and can be visited through July 30th.
7/8
“The Existential Space of Virtuality”
Two up-and-coming artists will present their works and the ideology connected to them at the Deák Erika Gallery: both focus on problems like the exotica of networks, how virtuality changes our daily life, the user experience, or the possible ways of information sharing. Zsófia Keresztes is known for her strange choices in terms of materials used: plastic, plexi, artificial leather, and so on. Her objects and pictures questions our relation to the industrial packaging and what we think about it. Andrea Tivadar is a painter who mixes modernist traditions, formalist solutions with uncontrolled parts, where the paint seem to explode on the canvas. Through her works, she tries to focus our attention to the existential space of virtuality. One of the most recommended exhibitions of the season.
Where: Deák Erika Gallery – Budapest 1066, Mozsár u. 1
The exhibition opens on June 16th and can be visited through July 31st.
8/8
“Gendermadness”
The #gendermadness exhibition joins recent political discourses regarding women and LGBTQ people, with the implementation of queer theories and feminist aspects as well. How is the feminine body (slenderness, maternity, feminine principle, pregnancy, menstruation) represented in arts, political discourses, and social expectations? Can we deconstruct the expectations and regulations concerning gender roles? Some of the works that are exhibited here are trying to break down the man-woman, heterosexual-lesbian/homosexual binary oppositions, while others reflect the ways the current political elite effects our ideas about family, roles and sexuality. There will be activities like a fanzine-making workshop, connected to the exhibition’s main topics.
Where: acb attachment – Budapest 1067, Eötvös u. 2
The exhibition opens on June 27th and can be visited through July 3rd.
