Einspach & Czapolai Fine Art’s Where We Meet exhibition presents a selection of recent works by London-based artist András Nagy-Sándor. One of the main themes of the young painter’s work is the question of “where does he end and the other (object or subject) begin”.
As a dual American-Hungarian citizen and an immigrant in London, hybridity is a key factor for him, referring both to the constellations of identity that emerge, but more importantly to how we relate to each other and our environment in different types of environments – virtual, real, indirect, artificial and organic. Most recently, he has been fascinated by the growing focus on cyborgs, artificial intelligence, and discourses on mirror neurons, as well as research areas such as embodied sensmaking.
An important reference point for his earlier series was the world of armour, which both protects the fragility of the body and extends its limits. His interest in armour has led him beyond historical references to other fields, including real and fictional military and sports uniforms, as well as iconic pieces by celebrated fashion designers. The main inspirations of this period, to which he often returned, were the armour designs of Jacqueline West and Bob Morgan (in Denis Villeneuve’s interpretation of the 2022 film Dune) and Thierry Mugler’s iconic Harley Davidson corset.
Body armour is also closely related to the human ability to naturally transfer our consciousness to objects such as clothes (protective and uniforms, etc.) and vehicles (cars, boats, planes), when we extend the boundaries of our bodies through them to experience our environment in a different way. For Alexander Nagy, this expanded field of consciousness and its investigation is one of the most important references.
His painting is also a hybrid: he is linked to both the figurative painting tradition and the new abstraction movement. This allows him to build dialectical compositions in which organic forms can merge with rigid and structural profiles, the human with the non-human, the strong with the weak, and the robust with the limp and fragile. He prefers to use the way that the painted forms extend beyond the boundaries of the canvas — suggesting that the composition is merely an “element” of some great whole, a momentary assemblage.
His works often feature multi-headed creatures, as well as sexual references floating between androgynous characters and identities, and folktale figures such as the young prince, the young shepherd, multi-headed beasts, dragons, kings and princesses. But the traditional male and female attributes coexist undefined, held together by abstract elements, gestures and colours. In addition to Hungarian folk tales, the visual heritage of folklore and the influence of Marcell Jankovics, Japanese anime and manga are also important inspirations.
One of his all-time favourites is the late Kentaro Miura’s Berserk, but he’s also a big fan of comic book series like Marshall Law by Kevin O’Neill and Pat Mills, some of which explore hero tropes through very meticulous artwork. But beyond the inspirations, he never loses sight of the fact that painting has its own story, is embedded in its own tradition, and therefore symbols from other contexts can work differently in his realm, where signs, layers, textures and colours are the tools of storytelling.
In creating the material for Where We Meet, the artist continued to explore the idea of boundaries and embodied perception, but this time he focused not on the exploration of the ‘consciousness of the extended body’, but on the possibilities of the organic world and the connection between mechanical elements. Based on this theme, he sought to construct a painterly world in which it is possible to imagine the mechanical or artificially constructed environment merging with plants and humans, and the resulting hybrids taking on the senses and functions of their creators.
Mónika Zsikla