Norbert Oláh (1990) presents his debut solo painting exhibition at acb Attachment, focusing on the aesthetic relevance of portrait painting and the contemporary possibilities inherent in the genre, reinterpreted in a unique tone. For this, the artist primarily selects the subjects of his portraits from his narrower and broader circle of friends, placing them in dystopian realist situations and anachronistic sci-fi settings that serve simultaneously as absurdist critiques and socio-parodies of our techno-optimistic everyday lives, as well as ironic counterpoints highlighting the unique character of the faces and figures depicted in the portraits.

Also known for his conceptual art and socially critical practices, the artist reintroduces the possibility of social criticism, infused with subtle humor, into his latest series of paintings. He does this by lifting his most cherished friends and colleagues – as if plucked from the contexts of personal relationships and spheres of intimacy – into the eerie sceneries of our contradictory Central and Eastern European reality. Thus, these colorful, vivid acrylic and oil canvases of varying sizes become haunting reflections of the current social and technological challenges from a not-so-distant future and, at the same time, a very timely anthropological imprint of the portrait understood as one of the most ancient genres of visual art.