ÁDÁM ALBERT

born in Veszprém, 1975
lives and works in Budapest

albertadam.com

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

András, Edit: From the future of the past – artistic progress thinking and the dream of an enlightened society, Springerin, 2018/4, pp 44-47

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. 

With a Blind Map in Our Hands: Contemporary Hungarian Art and the Anthropocene, Artportal, 2018. 12. 12.

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