Ádám Albert is an analytical engineer of the meaning. His earlier works, which already came into action on the edge of artistic institutions or even beyond them, already told about such a conceptual way of creation in the course of which the artist reflects on a process besides creating art. During this process, the work of art is born not just as a thing but also as the abstract carrier of the meaning of art.
One of the main questions of his enamelled panels (that can be interpreted as laboratory street-art) referred to presentation as art, that is, how the place of a work of art and its institutional position influence the viewer’s conditioned sight. What differs two forms from each other, art from non-art if they have the same bearing surfaces that impregnate the same texture. Is art as sign able to point towards a meaning beyond itself? The artist goes even further this time: he questions the possibility of medialization of art’s abstract code system. The components and building blocks of his works are such pictograms which examine the potential of deliverance of art’s meaning. His pictures, which have typographical affinity, set up the basics of a visual framework and also lay orientation points for the audience in the mechanism of generating meaning. Since art can be understood as retinal machinery whose bare virtual automatisms come into being in the gallery. The artist uses cleaned channels without technics and technology which do not include any disturbing element. There is no interference, even error message is composed into the system. Every drawn line of the artist is determined and reasoned from the respect of graphic connotation. The clear mechanisms of the meaning’s deliverance and reception throb in these works filled with minimalism and monochronicity.
Ádám Albert works with such distilled constructions that he provides with the brand sign of the decoder. The forms put on the mimicry of two-wave radios that flash the mechanisms of meaning mediation. The quasi-objects function as sign blocks in the space and they are thought to highlight a procedure in the course of which a sign passes through this machinery and finally becomes a meaning, a body with the help of a common clue. The onput and output of the sign suggest a common encoding mechanism which is analysed by Ádám Albert. Thus the steps of the artist’s decoding reasoning are included in the exhibited pictures. However, the works of Ádám Albert are not only frames and spare conceptual constructions. Their accuracy also offers retinal pleasure for those viewers who are already prepared from minimalism.
Áron Fenyvesi
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
2005 – 2010
DLA training, Doctoral School, Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest
1998 – 2003
Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest
SCHOLARSHIPS AND GRANTS
2012 –
Artist in residence at AtelierFrankfurt, Frankfurt am Main
2010 –
Hungarian Eötvös Scholarship – Germany
2009 – 2012
Derkovits Gyula Scholarship
2009 –
Hungarian Eötvös Scholarship – Germany
2007 –
Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Rome
2007 –
Essl Award 2007, 1st prize
2003 –
Erasmus Scholarship – Akademie der Bildenden Künste München
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
The Future of the Past is the Present - with Márton Nemes, American Hungarian Library and Historical Society, New York
2020
Disconnected, Kisterem, Budapest
2018
Everything is Ours!, Kassák Museum, Budapest
2017
Dream of a Barn Owl, Kisterem, Budapest
Melancholy of the Deconstructed Meaning, Art Gallery Paks, Paks
2016
Taxography - with Anna Zilahi, Labor, Budapest
2015
Recollection - with Áron Kútvölgyi-Szabó and Martin Piacek, OFF Biennále Budapest
2014
The Bauxite Crisis, Kisterem, Budapest
2013
Descriptio, Fuga Galéria, Budapest Center of Architecture, Budapest
2012
Never Take a Trip Alone, Moholy-Nagy Studiogallery, CHB, Berlin
2011
Never Take a Trip Alone, NextArt Galéria, Budapest
2009
p, Cultural Institute Of The Republic Of Hungary, Bratislava
H.W.A.Á. – Free your mind, with Heidi Wood, Stúdió Galéria, Budapest
2008
decoder, NextArt Galéria, Budapest
2007
Mechanikus Paradicsom [Clockwork Paradise] – with Ádám Szabó, INDA Galéria, Budapest
2005
As If, Menü Pont Galéria, Műcsarnok-Kunsthalle, Budapest
Identify Yourself, Csikász Galéria, Művészetek Háza, Veszprém
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Emplotment, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
The Man Who Stepped into Paint, MKE PROFIL, Budapest
2021
Setting a Modell: Pictorial Constructions of the Human Body, Hungarian Academy of Fine arts - Barcsay hall, Budapest
Invisible Spectra, Pannonhalmi Főapátság, Pannonhalma
Sketch, Kisterem, Budapest
Universum – SEFO 2021 Triennial, Olomouc Museum of Art, Olomouc
2020
Finally We Can Learn Something, Kincsem Palace (organised by Kisterem), Budapest
2019
Esterházy Art Award Hungary 2019, Ludwig Museum – Contemporary Art Museum
Listing VIII., Kisterem
2018
Form Creation Strategies, Labor, Budapest
Zeitgeistlos, Hans Knoll Galerie, Vienna
2017
Westkunst – Ostkunst. A new collection display, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
Flying Kayak, OFF-Biennale Budapest
Generosos animos labor nutrit, Omnivore Gallery, Budapest
2016
Przesilenie / Solstice / Napforduló, Panel Contemporary, Budapest
What kind of creature is an artist? – The 2016 Traditional Annual Exhibition of the Studio of Young Artists’ Association (SYAA, Budapest)
PHOTO / MODEL, Images between Art and Nature, Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest
2015
Papier / Paper V – ZEICHNUNG, Clement and Schneider, Bonn
Mindsets, Studio of Young Artists’ Association (SYAA), Budapest
Leopold Bloom Award, Új Budapest Galéria-New Budapest Gallery, Budapest
Hungarian and International Art from Private Collections in Hungary, 2010–2014, Új Budapest Galéria-New Budapest Gallery, Budapest
2014
THE MOST – The FKSE’s 2014 Traditional Annual Exhibition, Budapest
[silence] – A Holocaust Exhibition, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Pensive Pictures, Good bye! Fantasztikus földrajz és képzelt közösségek, Higgs Field, Budapest
Szabadkéz [Free-hand] , MODEM, Modern és Kortárs Művészeti Központ, Debrecen
2013
Shifts. Hungarian Art After 1945. Rearranged permanent exhibition, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Fanatstic Stuff, Kisterem, Budapest
Rajz.Ok [Drawing.Ok], Viltin Galéria, Budapest
2012
Artist in Residence-International Künstleraustausch 2012 – Kulturamt Frankfurt am Main, Atelierfrankfurt
Másodfokú Egyenletek [Quadratic Equtions], Kepes Institute, Eger
2011
Profile Budapest, Galerie Schuster, Berlin
Magáért Beszél [Speaks for itself], Magyar Nemzeti Galéria-Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest,
Senior, Studió Galéria, Budapest
2010
Donumenta 2010, Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg
Anatomy of a Street, London Festival of Architecture, London
2009
Free Artwork, ODY – C2001, Paris
JCE Biennial of Contemporary Art, Montrouge
Pixelek [Pixels], Ernst Múzeum, Budapest
2008
Lenmechanika [Mechanics of the Canvas], Ernst Múzeum, Budapest
Tetszőleges lényeg – A táj 2000 után [Optional essence – Landscape after 2000], Szombathelyi Képtár, Szombathely
Rundgang der SpinnereiGalerien Leipzig, LADA 2008, Leipzig
Essl Award. Junge Kunst in Mittel- und Südosteuropa, Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg
Nem Kötelező [Not compulsory], Stúdió Galéria, Budapest
2007
2007 Essl Award Winners, Essl Museum, Wien/Klosterneuburg
Hírtelen [Newsless], Dorottya Galéria, Budapest
10 Essl Award Nominees, Ludwig Museum-Contemporary Art Museum, Budapest
2006
Vorfahrt- Kunst im Spannungsfeld zwischen Privatheit und Öffentlichkeit, Stuttgart,
2004
Élő struktúrák [Living Structures], Ateliers Pro Arts/ A.P.A!, Budapest
2003
Grafika – Foto – Grafika [Graphic – Photo – Graphic], Ateliers Pro Arts / A.P.A.!, Budapest
La Grafica Ungherese del ‘900, Finale Ligure
2002
‘Roma – Budapest: due Accademie a confronto’, Galleria Il Quadrato di Omega, Roma
Albert Ádám, Huszár László, Varga Bálint’s exhibition, Művészetek Háza, Szombathely
WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Ludwig Museum – Contemporary Art Museum, Budapest
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Művészetek Háza – House of Arts, Veszprém
Videos
Publications
SELECTED PRESS
Lépold, Zsanett: Gavrilo Princip álma [Gavrilo Princip’s dream], Artmagazin online
Altmann, Susanne: Lines unfaithful, Art Das Kunstmagazin, 2018/9, pp 38-51
Ádám Albert at Art Gallery Paks – Art Viewer, March 15, 2017
Ádám Albert at Kisterem – Art Viewer, March 31, 2017
„Mikroszinten is ismétli magát a történelem” – Albert Ádám, képzőművész, Artportal, 2018. 06. 06.
Magányos növény az ember, Artportal, 2018. 07. 01.
Albert Ádám: The gardener’s truth, Balkon
Ádám Albert | Melancholy of the Disconstructed Meaning | Dream of a Barn Owl, Balkon, 2017.04.23.
The Best and Worst of Art in Central Europe in 2018, BLOK Magazine, 9 January 2019