10

Artists: Róbert Batykó, Péter Tamás Halász, Csaba Kis Róka, Péter Szalay, Hajnalka Tarr

In 2018 acb Gallery celebrates its 15th anniversary. For this occasion, in the course of the year, several events and exhibitions will reflect on periods or aspects from our history of one and a half decades. The exhibition 10 presents five middle-generation artists with whom acb Gallery has been collaborating for exactly 10 years, and who represented the youngest generation of Hungarian contemporary art 10 years ago. Gallery owner Gábor Pados selected his favourite pieces from the latest works of these artists.

The emergence of a new generation of artists was a key factor in the rejuvenation of acb Gallery, and the tangible result of this decade-long collaboration is at least as important in terms of the gallery’s identity as it is with regard to the praxis of each artist. Not only was the artist-gallery relation determined by this interaction, but it also characterised the relation between individual artists, especially in the beginning, when work and discussions in shared studios gave significant creative and intellectual inspiration for individual practice to become fully fledged. The most memorable site of these was the by now legendary atelier house in Kecske street, where many of the current exhibitors used to work.

A common trait of the artists is their medium-independent conceptual way of thinking, coupled with experimentation and a unique and unparalleled visual character. The creative practice of Hajnalka Tarr, Péter Tamás Halász and Péter Szalay are aligned with the paradigm referred to as “sensual conceptualism”. However, while Halász’ and Szalay’s works reflect on today’s social and political problems as objects drawing on the Hungarian DIY tradition, loaded with art historical or pop-cultural references, Tarr creates meticulously crafted planar and spatial structures constructed of reality fragments and reflecting on the personal and at once general theme of human existence and consciousness. Róbert Batykó and Csaba Kis Róka keep pushing the boundaries of the medium of painting, each representing a distinct, unique style using select formal and technical methods coupled with theoretical queries and reflections on the role of the medium in the 21st century.