The collage architectures that Zsolt Molnár has produced in recent years continue his earlier efforts to move away from the classical processes of reproductive prints and look for the latent conceptual possibilities in printmaking. The precursors to the forms that appear on the surfaces of Molnár’s pictures from the past year were mostly the machines and chemical processes used in agriculture, whose functioning principles and structural workings were researched and studied by the artist, who then abstracted them into geometric structures. His picture planes, which spread and sprawl over time into simplified yet ever more complex installations, always precisely follow – as though simulating them in space – the agricultural machinery and chemical processes he depicts, such as the visible and invisible processes of fertilising, spraying, and breeding, and their micro- and macro dimensions.
The series of colour collages entitled Agro-Wave (2018) was inspired by the science fiction-like spraying simulations of the plant protection products and structures used in agriculture. On the simultaneously depictive and abstracting picture surfaces, however, the dialectic of micro and macro-qualities was not the only eye-catching aspect, for there was also a clash between organic and inorganic qualities. The colour metal structures bearing the picture fields and the paper collages also thematized in a unique way the visual problématique of shifting scale. In 2019 Zsolt Molnár carried on with his chemical and technological observations associated with plant protection, but the focus of his attention was now the drone technologies used in agriculture and the imaging of vegetation with robotized, pilotless aircraft. In August 2018 he took part in the Artist in Residence Program of the Krinzinger Projekte, held in the western Hungarian village of Petőmihályfa, where his research was distilled into a series consisting of two components: one component was the iron sculpture entitled Vegetation Stress Map(2018), a three-dimensional abstraction of the positive and/or negative effects of the mechanism of action (MOA) of spraying, the dispersal of chemical agents, and their impact on the protection and growth of plants. The other component, entitled Methodological Thinking (2019), was a five-part collage that abstracted the true operating principle of the spraying simulation, as well as expressions and motifs taken from the digital interfaces of plant protection processes. The colour metal constructions, balancing in space, not only offered a graphic portrayal of the increasing presence of digital innovations in agriculture, but also, as a subtle association, alluded to the delicate balance between sustainable stability in the natural environment and total collapse.
Molnár’s latest works, produced for the Kisterem Gallery exhibition entitled Finally We Can Learn Something (2020), probe even further into the reality of the sustainable processes of equilibrium in nature. However, whereas his earlier works experimented with abstracting the artificial processes taking place in the natural environment, his most recent group of works concentrates on the “natural” processes happening in nature. The objects and motifs visible in the picture spaces of the collages are increasingly anthropomorphous in character, and the spraying machine with ‘antennas’ that appears in the collage of the central installation looks far more like an attacking and defending creature than a piece of agricultural equipment. The radically angular and geometric forms that were typical of his earlier installations, meanwhile, are now replaced with natural, biomorphic curves and arcs.
Mónika Zsikla
EXHIBITIONS
BIOGRAPHY
EDUCATION
2008 – 2013
Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Department of Artist-teacher – MFA, Budapest
2007 – 2012
Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Department of Graphic Arts – MFA, Budapest
2003 – 2006
Secondary School of Fine Arts, Department of Graphic Arts, Szombathely, (H)
RESIDENCIES, PRIZES, MEMBERSHIPS
2022 –
A.i.R - Artist in Residence, Lisbon (PT)
2020 –
Finalist at ACAX and Leopold Bloom Young Visual Art Award
2019 –
Nomination for Esterhazy Art Award 2019
Finalist at Leopold Bloom Art Award 2020
2018 –
A.i.R. - Artist in Residence, Petőmihályfa – Krinzinger Gallery, Vienna (AT)
2017 –
Nomination for Esterhazy Art Award 2017
Graphic of the Year Art Award, HUFA, Budapest
2015 – 2017
Derkovits Gyula Fine Art Scholarship
2014 –
A.i.R - Artist in Residence, Krems an der Donau (AT)
2012 –
Member of Studio of Young Artists' Association
2011 –
1st International Biennial of Drawing- and Graphic Arts, Grand Prix, Győr
2010 –
Prize of the Barcsay Foundation – HUFA, First Prize
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Red Foliage, Parthenón-fríz Hall, Epreskert, Budapest
Mural - Bloomsday, Kőszegi utca 6., Szombathely
2021
Stillness of Remains (collaboration with Tünde Ruzicska), Kisterem Gallery, Budapest
Along the Edge of the Leaf, Kisterem Gallery, Budapest
2018
Agro-Wave, Kisterem Gallery, Budapest
2017
Agro Scenario, Art Gallery Paks, Paks
2016
Mobil Structures, LABOR Gallery, Budapest
2012
Portraits and Carcasses (duo with Ádám Dallos), Labor Gallery, Budapest
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Listing X., Kisterem Gallery, Budapest
2022
Winter Listing, Kisterem Gallery, Budapest
YOUHU, Kieselbach Gallery, Budapest
Our Heritage - Selection from the Balázs-Dénes Collection, Q Contemporary, Budapest
The Man Who Stepped in Paint, MKE Profil, Budapest
2021
Leave It All Behind, Manuel Zoia Gallery, Milano (IT)
Sketch, Kisterem Gallery, Budapest
2020
Finally We Can Learn Something, Kincsem Palace, Budapest (organised by Kisterem)
2019
Short List 2019 Esterhazy Art Award, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Listing VIII, Kisterem Gallery, Budapest
Leopold Bloom Art Award Finalists, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
AiR 2018, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna (AT)
Conditio Inhumana, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
2018
Scale, New Budapest Gallery, Budapest
On the Edge of Geometry, Vasarely Museum, Budapest
Lemuel Gulliver’s Memory, Artpool P60, Budapest
2017
Short List 2017 Esterhazy Art Award, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Derko 2017, M21 Gallery, Pécs
Listing VI., Kisterem Gallery, Budapest
True Copy, Budapest Gallery, Budapest
Derko 2017, Kunsthalle, Budapest
2016
Derko 2016, M21 Gallery, Pécs
Listing V., Kisterem Gallery, Budapest
The Traditional Annual Exhibition of the SYAA, 115-106 Apartment-gallery, Budapest
Intermediate Preferences, New Irókéz Gallery, Szombathely
Derko 2016 - Reporting Exhibition of the Derkovits Fine Arts Scholarship Awardees, Kunsthalle, Budapest
Everybody Has a Dream / Everybody Has a Mistake, Studio Gallery, Budapest
2015
Inverse, Kisterem Gallery, Budapest
Everybody Has a Dream / Everybody Has a Mistake, Miskolc Gallery, Miskolc
OFF Biennale, Irokéz Gallery, Szombathely
2014
The Most - The SYAA’s Traditional Annual Exhibition, Budapest
1/1/2, Fuga, Budapest Center of Architecture, Budapest
Layers, Latarka Gallery, Polish Institute, Budapest
2013
Fingerprints, Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapest
45th International Artistic Symposium Final Exhibition, Esterhazy Palace, Győr
Exhibition of the New Members of The Studio of Young Artists, Studio Gallery, Budapest
2012
5th Young Art Show, Piestany (SK)
Fresh – Empathy / Manipulation, Kogart House, Budapest
Graphic Open 2012, Kondor Béla Gallery, Budapest
2011
1st International Biennial of Drawing and Graphic Arts, Esterházy Palace, Győr
Eastern European Printmakers Today, Brickbottom Gallery, Boston, MA (USA)
Akademia Sztuk Pieknyek im Jana Matejki, Krakow (PL)
WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Rómer Floris Art and History Museum, Esterházy Palace, Hungary
Videos
Publications
SELECTED PRESS
2022 (book) Youhu: The New Generation of Hungarian Contemporary Art, Kieselbach Gallery
2022 (book) Our Heritage – Selection from the Balázs-Dénes Collection, Q Contemporary, Budapest
2022 (online) KubaParis: The Man Who Stepped in Paint
2021 Márkus Eszter: Térbe kilépő vonalak, Artmagazin, XIX. évf, 6. szám
2021 Széplaky Gerda: Malevics hernyófészke, Élet és Irodalom, XV. évf, 25. szám
2020 György Péter: Az eltűnt ország nyomában, Élet és Irodalom XIV. évf, 38. szám
2020 (online) KubaParis: Finally We Can Learn Something
2020 (book) Révész Emese: Válogatott írások a grafikáról, Új Művészet Alapítvány
2019 (online) Blok Magazine: The Best and Worst of Art in Central Europe in 2019
2018 Révész Emese: Helyzetszabályozó pollinátor, Új Művészet, 2018/10
2018 (book) Living Line – Contemporary graphic arts at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, HUFA
2018 (online) Gadó Flóra: A stabilitás és az összeomlás közötti állapot, Artportal
2017 (online) Márkus Eszter: Egy stukturalista forgatókönyv, Balkon online
2017 Sinkó István: Az érzelmes dizájn, Élet és Irodalom, LXI. évf, 44. szám
2016 (online) Szilágyi Róza Tekla: A helyzetszabályozó, Artkartell
2016 Juhász Anna: Rugalmas merevség, Élet és Irodalom LIX. évf, 46. szám