Katalin Káldi’s remarkably consistent œuvre shares numerous links with the traditions of Radical Painting and Conceptual Art. One of the standout artists of her generation, she studied painting at the Hungarian College of Fine Arts between 1989 and 1994 as a pupil of Zsigmond Károlyi, who was invited to teach at the institution when it was undergoing radical changes after the fall of communism. “Monochrome: the academicism of our age” – a notion borrowed from Ad Reinhardt – was the principle underlying Károlyi’s teaching programme, launched in 1990, and the master’s first group, of which Káldi was a member, carved out a place in Hungarian art history as the “legendary monochrome painting class”.
In Káldi’s painting, the monochrome tradition is an ever-present reference point, although in her case it is not a guiding doctrine, but the most feasible solution for focusing attention and reducing pictorial space. The compositional principle she applies to the surfaces of her easel works, however, is attuned to the formal language of mosaic, installation and – at a stretch – even sculpture. From the very start, in all the various media she uses, her surfaces exude a palpable sense of intense concentration on the contemplative nature of the objects, and over the decades, this concentration has gradually intensified.
Mónika Zsikla
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
2009 – 2014
DLA training, Doctoral School, Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest
1996 – 1996
Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg
1994 – 1996
Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest, postgradual training
1994 – 1994
Graduated at the University of Fine Arts, Budapest
AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS AND GRANTS
1997 –
Magyar Aszfalt Kft. Special Prize for Painting
Derkovits Scholarship
Scholarship from the Hungarian Academy in Rome
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
Division, Kisterem, Budapest
2019
The Perfect Six, Budapest Gallery, Budapest
2018
Velocity of objects, Paksi Képtár, Paks
Heat, Kisterem, Budapest
2016
Man with Hammer, Kisterem, Neon Gallery, Budapest
Warrior, Kisterem, Budapest
2014
Indecency, Liget Gallery, Budapest
Rule, Kisterem, Budapest
2012
Iron, Kisterem, Budapest
Labor, Budapest
2010
Raiffeisen Gallery, Budapest
2009
Kisterem, Budapest
2008
Kisterem, Budapest
2006
Kisterem, Budapest
2005
Knoll Gallery, Budapest
Kisterem, Budapest
2002
Fészek Gallery, Budapest
2000
Várfok Gallery, Budapest
Galerie Thomas Rehbein, Cologne (D)
1999
Várfok Gallery, Budapest
Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (D)
1998
Gallery 56, Budapest
1997
Stúdió Gallery (FKSE), Budapest
Hungarian Institute, Bucharest (RO)
1996
Liget Gallery, Budapest
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
The Image of Colour, the Mystery of Image, MODEM, Debrecen
Colours, Numbers, Vasarely Museum, Budapest
2023
Mediating Time and Charm, Q Contemporary, Budapest
OSAS PLUS No.2, Vasarely Museum, Budapest
2022
Winter Listing, Kisterem, Budapest
2021
Sketch, Kisterem, Budapest
2020
Finally We Can Learn Something, Kincsem Palace (organised by Kisterem), Budapest
2019
Listing VIII., Kisterem, Budapest
Bauhaus100. Programme for the now – Contemporary Viewpoints, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
2017
True Copy, Budapest Galéria, Budapest
Autism as Metaphor, ICA-D, Dunaújváros
Jóvoltából, Fészek, Budapest
2012
Listing, Kisterem, Budapest
2011
Zuhause, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (D)
Background, Kisterem, Budapest
2007
Stúdió Gallery (FKSE), Budapest
2004
Still Lifes, Kunsthalle, Budapest
2003
Fresh Works for one Week, Kunsthalle, Budapest
Cream, MEO, Budapest
2001
Garden, Szombathelyi Képtár, Szombathely
Klasse Sayler, Barcsay Hall, Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest
Objects, Bodies and Organs, Hungarian Academy, Rome (IT)
2000
Dialogue, Kunsthalle, Budapest
1999
Most 1999. Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Ungarn, Vízivárosi Galéria, Budapest
1998
Hungarian Academy, Rome (IT)
1997
Oil, Canvas, Kunsthalle, Budapest
Life means Light, Goethe Institute, Budapest
1996
K as Chimera, Szombathelyi Képtár, Szombathely
WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (D)
MODEM, Debrecen
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
