Dávid Merényi’s solo exhibition transforms the liminal spaces of Budapest’s mainly Art Nouveau architecture into painting. His compositional combinatorics focuses on the play between parts and wholes, structuring the environment in such a way that the proportions are captured – thus following the Western European painting tradition, which strives for harmony. In the spirit of visual aesthetics, he idealises the sight of real places, mixing the idea of beauty with the need to depict nature. The reproduction of the qualities of different materials, be it glazed tiles, metal railing, glass or painted walls, plays an important role in his paintings, as his artistic practice is rooted in techne, his favourite tool being tonality in painting.
Yet his precise drawing system leaves plenty of room for associations, as his non-narrative paintings move through emotional registers. Sometimes richly detailed, demanding deep attention, sometimes freely painted, left to the viewer’s imagination, almost reduced to allusions. Its doorways, staircases and passageways are metaphorical spaces of passage, stereotypical horizons of not-spending-much-time – the attention paid to them is thus a surprising gesture, alien to the everyday. Pondering creates a strange sensation, as the tension between the melancholically empty spaces and the gem-like vividness of the cheerful colors is not resolved – in the stillness, this dissonance nuances the beauty’s
unreflectiveness.