Once you encounter Ádám Kokesch’s works, you will always remain their prisoner, as they create a sort of aesthetic trap. Rather than mere paintings on a wall, his works are surfaces, shapes, and discs composed of colours, which can be fixed in space ad libitum and even adjusted with the help of a “hinge”.
They are hybrid creations, real entities that combine simultaneously the appeal of paintings and of technical objects; as a result of their very specific presence, they seem to look back – staring almost at us – thus defining the space they occupy. They ask questions about what defines – what is – a work of art and what are the expectations of viewers on this. Why can a painting “only” hang on a wall?
Kokesch’s works play not only with the great traditions of abstract art [Mondrian, Malevich, Colour Field or Shaped Canvas], but also with means of conveying information and the visual rhetoric of pictograms. He builds his repertoire of forms based on a database, creating a synthesis between scientific thoroughness and subjective freedom and autocracy. The “acrylic” pictures painted on “plexiglass” are reversed glass paintings of sorts giving the impression of modern traffic signs or reminding us of surveillance cameras, while, placed horizontally, they could even be seen as modern-style trays. The precise geometrical segmentation of planes, the full-coloured, smooth-surfaced patterns and ornaments could be product samples of a new, mysterious material. And we may ask: what do these represent?
Kokesch does not limit his exploration and analitic questioning to the tradition of painting ad image/picture-making alone he also queries other genres and media. He approaches every genre, technique and medium with the same attitude of experimental probing and curiosity that questions well-established habits.
Annie-Marie Bonnet
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHY
STUDIES AND RESIDENCIES
2018 –
Futura AIR, Prague
2012 –
Banska st a nica, Banska Stiavnica
2011 –
Futura AIR, Triangle Studios, New York
2009 –
AIR, Novia, Nykarleby
2007 –
Artists in Residence Laboratory, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
2005 – 2008
Gyula Derkovits Scholarship
1998 –
Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts
1998 –
Member of Studio of Young Artists' Association
1994 – 2003
University of Fine Arts, Budapest
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2015 –
Nomination for Leopold Bloom Art Award
2009 –
Nomination for Aviva Art Award
2007 –
Studio Prize (SYAA)
2006 –
Strabag Art Award
2003 –
Klára Herczeg Prize
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
If, Kisterem, Budapest
2022
World Game - Book Launch, Kisterem, Budapest
„WHATIFS AND WHYNOTS: OFF-PLAYGROUND” project by OFF-Biennale Budapest,
documenta fifteen, Kassel
2020
Root, Kisterem, Budapest
2018
Palm House, Karlín Studios, Prague
2016
White Flag, Kisterem, Budapest
2015
BACKUP, Kassák Museum, Budapest
SAM, Selectedartmodels, Cologne
Lark Theory, Parthenón-fríz terem, MKE, Budapest
2013
POD, Kisterem, Budapest
Vous Ete Ici, Amsterdam
2012
Kisterem, Budapest
Platform, Óbudai Társaskör Gallery, Budapest
2010
Tanya Rumpff Project, Haarlem
Paks Picture Gallery, Paks
2009
Kisterem, Budapest
2008
Sudo Kino, Dorottya Gallery, Budapest
2004
Possession, Exhibition space, W139, Amszterdam
2003
Possession, Studio (FKSE) Gallery, Budapest
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Reversed Objects, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
3D, Artroom Schroth, Soest
2022
“WHATIFS AND WHYNOTS”: OFF-Playground, documenta fifteen, Kassel
2021
Universum – SEFO 2021 Triennial, Olomouc Museum of Art, Olomouc
Sketch, Kisterem, Budapest
The Odradek-Effekt, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Eisenstadt
2020
Finally We Can Learn Something, Kincsem Palace (organised by Kisterem), Budapest
2019
Szene Ungarn, Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch
Orient2, Kunsthalle Bratislava
Listing VIII., Kisterem
Bauhaus100. Programme for the now – Contemporary Viewpoints, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
2018
Scale, Új Budapest Galéria, Budapest
Orient. “The New East” in Central Eastern European Art, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, Krakow
Orient, Bozar, Brussels
Orient, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga
2017
Found Geometry, Vasarely Múzeum, Budapest
People Players, OFF-Biennale, Budapest
PostContemporary, Telep Gallery, Budapest
Listing VI., Kisterem, Budapest
Abstract Hungary, Künstlerhaus, Graz
2015
Pure Light, Vasarely Múzeum, Budapest
Leopold Bloom Art Award, New Budapest Gallery, Budapest
Post Contemporary, Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapest
Izolátor, OFF-Biennale, Budapest
2014
Painting and Beyond, Kunstgalerie, Bonn
The Most, The FKSE’s Traditional Annual Exhibition
BoogieWoogie, Trafó Galéria, Budapest
Abstrakt Variációk, Trapéz Galéria, Budapest
2013
13th Istanbul Biennial
Fantastic Stuff, Kisterem Galéria, Budapest
Blind Date, Kunstgalerie, Bonn
Köztes Terek, Vasarely Múzeum, Budapest
Impossibility vs. Self-Censorship, Matadero, Madrid
2012
Haunting Monumentality, Gallery Plan-B, Berlin
Listing, Kisterem, Budapest
KROKUS Gallery, Bratislava
Másodfokú Egyenletek, Kepes Intézet, Eger
27 Countries – 27 Artists, Museum Tongerlohuys, Roosendaal
2011
Joy and Disaster, Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow
Joy and Disaster, S.M.A.K., Gent
Speak for Itself, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Outpost, Trafó Gallery, Budapest
Social Bazaar, Studio Gallery, Budapest
2010
donumenta 2010, Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg
Unmistakable Sentences. The Collection Revisited, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Science of the imagination, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
szimpla..dupla…, Künstlerhaus Dortmund
2009
Aviva Prize, Kunsthalle, Budapest
Pixel’s, Ernst Museum, Budapest
2008
Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. Kunsthalle, Budapest
Constructive-Concrete Wanted, Vasarely Museum, Budapest
Mechanic of Canvas, Ernst Museum, Budapest
Reloaded, Studio Gallery, Budapest
2007
Living Colour, Vasarely Museum, Budapest
Strabag prize 2006, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2006
Points of view, Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana
Private Matter?, Kunsthalle, Budapest
The 1st QUADRILATERAL BIENNIAL, Relativity,
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka
2005
Reading in Absence, Trafó, Budapest
Travelling without moving, W139, Post CS, Amsterdam
Wedding, KLUBvh, ICA-D, Dunaújváros
2004
INTERKOSMOS, Raster Gallery, Warsaw
Cream, MEO, Budapest
2003
DEMO, ICA-D, Dunaújváros
One minute for one picture, ICA-D, Dunaújváros
2002
Zweite Welt, Kunstallianz, Berlin
Artwork of the week, Little Warsaw, Budapest
Impossible, P60, Artpool, Budapest
Paks Picture Gallery, Paks
2000
Man and Technic, Platán Gallery, Budapest
WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Ludwig Múzeum – Kortárs Művészeti Múzeum, Budapest
Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest
Paksi Képtár, Paks
