The Bényi Gallery, located in the Kölcsey Centre, opened the autumn season with a joint exhibition of two painters – Anikó Éberling and Zsuzsa Szász – entitled Time Becomes Matter.
Both artists are characterized by a versatile, bold, creative use of materials and the reuse and reinterpretation of discarded objects. This is what gave rise to the idea of a joint exhibition, although the two artists have very different styles of representation – one abstract, the other concrete – the curator says they respond to the world around them with a very similar sensitivity.
Zsuzsa Szász
After graduating from school, she worked as a costume designer and later as a designer at the Csokonai Theater. In 2007 she graduated from the Medgyessy High School, majoring in ceramics and painting. In 2016 she was admitted to the National Association of Hungarian Artists. Since 2006 she has participated in exhibitions, solo and group exhibitions in Hungary and abroad. She is engaged in several artistic disciplines, besides painting he also likes to create objects and textiles.
“Painting gives me a great freedom, it is the most honest form of expression, and it is a way of purification for me. It gives me a personal imprint on myself and others. I project onto canvas the oneness of nature and man, their interdependence, the spiritual and psychic mood of man, the play of the subconscious imagination, his inner turmoil, passion, and pain. I feel at home within the boundaries of expressionism and surrealism. I draw from lived experience, free of routine solutions, in a cross section of innovations and depths that lead to a higher state of mind.” – said Zsuzsanna Szász.
The starting point for her project, which started in 2018, was a house in Debrecen built in the 18th century, which was condemned to demolition, but the people who once lived there left behind a lot of discarded objects that were valuable to the artist, and which inspired her with their history, the soul of the objects, the appearance of time as transience, and their philosophy. A selection from this collection is now on display at the exhibition.
Anikó Éberling
Born in Budapest in 1977, she studied at the University of Hertfordshire Faculty of Art and Design on an Erasmus scholarship in 2001. She graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pécs in 2003, majoring in visual education, painting, where her master was Csaba Hegyi. Since 2008 she has been a teacher of visual arts in secondary schools and a restorer of historical monuments. In 2013 he was elected a member of the Art9 art association and in 2016 of MANK. Anikó Éberling shared the following thoughts.
“Our lives are often characterized by loneliness, the superficiality and emptiness of our relationships, the lack of respect. The distortions that reflect the presence of man, where there is no depiction of man – objects and buildings show that man has been here, created something and then left it behind. Moving out or abandoning buildings and leaving room for destruction creates the same “quasi-presence”. General destinies are brought to life in the use of different materials together, in the assimilation of found objects. Such materials include old wallpaper, discarded wood, window frames, or any object that adds to the interpretation of a work, making us aware that we are surrounded by an illusory world into which we must fit our increasingly difficult-to-maintain individuality.”
The chandelier and the greyhound often appear as symbols in her work. For the artist, these forms represent lost values and elegance, but the greyhound can also be endowed with many human qualities.
The exhibition is open free of charge between 28 September and 20 October 2023 during the opening hours of the Bényi Gallery.
