The K.A.S. Gallery’s exhibition “Birdsong,” featuring the latest works by Knyihár Amarilla, explores the complex relationship between nature, human intervention, and the creation of illusions. The artist combines motifs from the Szentendre landscape and Papsziget with fleeting experiences of nature, blending them with the passionate, liberated expression of Informel and Abstract Expressionist painting and her own unique, paradoxical artistic aspirations.
The central concept of the exhibition is built on the dichotomy between present and future, real and imaginary spaces, as well as the contrast between living and suffering nature. The exhibition’s most defining, grandiose work is the triptych titled “Birdsong,” which draws attention to the dangers facing humanity in the Anthropocene through its shift in medium and socially conscious content.
The classical religious structure of the triptych transforms the space into a sanctuary that glorifies nature, where the two outer panels convey the sensual and spiritual beauty of the landscape. In contrast, the central element is an image-object woven over the course of a year and a half from waste household plastic packaging, which focuses on the consumer’s drastic ecological footprint and the bioaccumulation process of accumulating waste. The work’s true shock value lies in the duality of attraction and revulsion: while visually spectacular, with an exciting texture and tactile quality, the piece is in fact constructed from non-biodegradable materials that are toxic to humanity.
Knyihár’s art blends drips, splatters, and elements of gestural painting inspired by Max Ernst and Jackson Pollock, while his canvases also reflect Impressionism’s sensitivity to the changing face of nature. The materiality of the paint and the sensuality of the medium simultaneously celebrate the beauties of painting, visual pleasure, and the joy of reception, while the power of realistic natural motifs emerging from abstraction opens up the interpretation toward a spiritual understanding.
Gréta Garami, art historian