Gábor Kerekes 75 graduated from the painting department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. Leaving the classical painting direction, he works on an alternative conquest of the two-dimensional plane. He started to build large site-specific installations in community spaces, and continuing his search for a new path, he is currently experimenting with collage technique, which has captivated him since 2006. It has since become a dominant element in his work.
“In many stories of creation, CHAOS is the primordial element from which everything is created. The state of things before they are separated. This gaping abyss is a disordered order whose transparency is unimaginable and incomprehensible – such things strike fear in man. To put order in chaos is a cliché, but it makes no sense, because it is impossible, and that is not the point. In my way of working, there is the intention to build out of chaos, which is ‘creation’ itself. The idea is nothingness itself, which needs a lot of other things to make something out of it. My main theme is BABEL. I assemble my collages – like the tower in the descriptions is built brick by brick – from printed products cut into small pieces of images, I build them myself. I usually make sketches, drawings, sketches for them, to make it easier for me to imagine the structures in action in the work to be created, and how the physical reality of its construction will play out on the workbench or in the actual exhibition space.”
Zoltán Túró was born in 1972 in Budapest, in a working class family.
“The early loss of my father inspired me to think seriously and to develop a solitary view of the world. Like all children, I loved drawing lessons in kindergarten and school, and when I had chalk in my hands, I could practise my drawing skills on the asphalt in front of our house in the 7th district. Then, in the upper school, encouraged by my teachers, I decided that I wanted to do fine arts. I enrolled in the Barcsay Children’s Art Circle in our district, which was known in professional circles at the time, where children were consciously prepared for the art school, which at the time had a huge status, as it was very difficult to get in and was considered an elite art school. It was also where I met my friend Gábor Kerekes. It was an intensive preparation for admission to the art school, and I was allowed to draw settings every day after school. I have to mention my beloved late teacher, Melania Dombiné Szántó Szántó, to whom I owe a lot for her consistent mastery of the basics of drawing. My Hungarian-Roma identity cannot be separated. Later, I tried to look for those great thinkers and artists of Gypsy origin, such as István Szentandrássy and Tamás Péli, who were nationally known by then. And after them, of course, I met the best of the best of the Roma intelligentsia: József Kovács, József Choli Daróczi, Tivadar Fátyol, Jenő Zsigó, Ágnes Osztolykán, and I could go on listing our national greats. The great knowledge, intellect and humanistic thinking of these two great painters, Péli and Szenty, had a fascinating and liberating influence on my thinking and artistic outlook. I felt that this was what I had always been looking for, and their love and knowledge have accompanied me ever since. Since I dropped out of formal art education, I tried to develop my skills through other avenues under the wings of the two great Masters. Already in my early twenties I had the opportunity to exhibit in many exhibitions. At that time, people were much more open to art, and artists were not hampered by obstacles to exhibiting. After a long break, visual art is still part of my life, I am still doing the same creative work, and at the same time I am studying at András Szunyoghy’s free school. My artistic vision has been greatly influenced by European art from the early Renaissance through the Baroque to the 20th century. I remain a figurative painter, using traditional oil painting techniques.”