Represented artist
KristofLab
képzőművészet · médiaművészet · festészet · grafika · intermédia · fotóművészet · installáció · videó
Szabó Kristóf's interdisciplinary artistic identity, in which fine art and media art, painting, graphics, photography, installation and video interweave.
Kristóf Szabó has been using the artist name KristofLab since 2016, alluding to his interdisciplinary creative approach that blends various art forms, where visual art and media art are the most defining aspects. In addition to his painting practice, he also creates graphic, intermedia and photographic works, making both the visual and audio elements of his installations and videos himself.
He often initiates collaborative work with other creators, driven above all by the sharing of knowledge and the implementation of creative workshop practice, alongside interdisciplinarity. He has been a member of the Ziggurat Project since 2015, experimenting with multidisciplinary art collaborations, with whom he regularly works together in Hungary and abroad, mainly in the execution of location‑specific experimental performances.
KristofLab, alongside constant experimentation, extensively studies how the boundaries between artistic fields and genres can be reckoned within a creator’s oeuvre.
For KristofLab, analytical procedures do not merely illuminate the study of social phenomena; they also play a crucial role in the actual creative process, by re‑examining his own works. His art starts from photographs and videos, captured while wandering through cities and mapping the natural world.
The resulting “raw materials” function as a kind of memory bank, which are periodically transformed, grouped and ultimately condensed into a distinctive, sometimes even utopian artistic concept. They layer materials produced by observing the environment across the visual landscape of his works, thereby altering the original meaning of the starting point and bringing into dialogue the seemingly distant elements of nature, the metropolis and virtuality.
The varied digital image artefacts, reflections, lights and noise that afflict two‑ and three‑dimensional works bring the aesthetic categories of distortion and error into play.
His work mainly centres on three key themes, each built around the human figure: social identity, the living environment, and through these lenses, the current stage of civilisation. The fundamental basis of the questions that cluster around these concepts is social sensitivity and an active engagement with the problems and phenomena produced by our contemporary lives. Consequently, his work tackles subjects such as alienation, distortions of the self‑image, and ecological issues.
KristofLab’s work bears witness to a coherent construction. The themes of his series feed off one another, are tightly interwoven, and as he expresses his ideas they are expanded and refined by newer pieces and collections of artefacts. Experimenting with different artistic media is also important to him because each one can bring new layers of expression, enabling the viewer to ultimately gain a comprehensive picture of the subject.
He thinks in terms of site‑specific solutions, so he turns the exhibition space or the performance venue into a unique world where the artworks can merge.
Works at byGodotEarlier professional biography
Full biography and exhibition history
Győr, 1988
Studies:
2019- 2020 Budapest Art Mentor Programme
2011 University of the Arts Dresden – Visual Arts
2007-2012 Hungarian Fine Arts Association – Graphics Department
Selected Awards, Residency Programs:
2020 The Master of Light – Hungarian Architecture Special Award and commendation from the technical jury
2019 Residence – Our Home Place, KristofLab & Ziggurat Project, at Nástupište 1‑12, Topoľčany, Slovakia
2019 Residency – Future Repair Machine, Art House of United Cowboys, Eindhoven, Hollandia
2018 Residency – Litle magic box of harmony, Ziggurat Project, at Nástupište 1-12, Topoľčany, Slovakia
2018 Residency – Stockholm, Sweden – lecture with Dokter Sybrig at Weld.
2017 Ludwig Museum – Creative Europe Programme CAPP (Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme) | Ziggurat Project
2017 Erasmus + 7 ROADS 1 PATH – Euroculture En Pays Gentiane 2017 | Ziggurat Project, France
2017 Placc and Scenekunst Østfold – PICTURE Budapest – Østfold c. project | Budapest, Hungary, Moss and Fredrikstad, Norway | Ziggurat Project
2016 IVF – V4 CREATIVE YOUTH | Beszterce bánya, Slovakia | Ziggurat Project
2014 Unicredit Small Creators Scholarship
2010 Erasmus scholarship
2009 National scholarship
2009 Tóth Menyhért Grant Award
Selected solo or joint exhibitions:
Concrete Questions / Konkrét kérdések (with Csizik Balázs), Hegyvidék Gallery, Budapest 2020
2019 Our Home Place – KristofLab & Ziggurat Project – Nástupište 1-12 Gallery, Topoľčany, (SK)
2019 KristofLab & Ziggurat Project: Fusions, SMart project, Trafó, Budapest
2018 BLOCK, K.A.S Gallery, Budapest
2018 Budapest Pixel, Magyar Műhely Gallery, Budapest
2015 PestBuda two faces (with Bianka Dobó), Zép Múhely, Budapest
2015 Freedom!, Bakelit Multi Art Centre, Budapest
2014 VÁKUUM (with Mórocz István), Three Weeks Gallery, Budapest
Selected group exhibitions:
2020 Art Market Budapest – Magyar Műhely Galéira – Budapest
On 2020 the Godot ART Fair, G.I.C.A, Budapest
2020 G6 VI. Székely Land Graphic Biennial, Sepsisszentgyörgy, (RO)
2020 Discoverers 3.0 – Budapest Art Mentor 2019‑2020 – Budpest Projekt Galéria, Budapest
2020 Kol-Labor, G.I.C.A. GodotLabor, Budapest
2020 Both Ways, Trieste Contemporanea, Trieszt (IT)
2020 HOME by LoosenArt – international group exhibition, Millepiani, Rome, (IT)
2020 What About Tomorrow, ART VEINE platform (online exhibition), Rio de Janeiro (BR)
2020 Art and Play, MANK, Szentendre
2019 SETUP, MAMŰ Gallery, Budapest
2019 Art Market Budapest, Magyar Műhely Galéria, Budapest
2019 66. Vásárhelyi Őszi Tárlat, Alföldi Galériá, Hódmezővásárhely
2019 Workbooks, (Hungarian Artists' Bookbinders' Society) K.A.S Gallery, Budapest
2019 Panel, MODEM Modern and Contemporary Art Centre, Debrecen
2019 TRANS DUNA SALON, The Labile Message, Vienna, (AT)
2019 Spot, Magyar Műhely Galéria, Budapest
2019 Paradise City Art Capital, Ámos Imre‑Anna Margit Museum, Szentendre
2018 ICIA – International Competition for Intermedia Artwork – 2018, Opcja Glaéria, Kraków, (PL)
2018 Decode, Faur Zsófi Gallery, Budapest
2018 65. Vásárhelyi Őszi Tárlat, Alföldi Galériá, Hódmezővásárhely
2018 V4 Art Conects – V4 Art Connects: Structures / Illusions / Interactions, MIKVE and Várkert Bazaar, Budapest
2018 Mosom Kezeimet – Semmelweis 200 (Hungarian Artists' Association) Karinthy Salon, Budapest
2018 Our Common Matters | Art Projects Based on Collaboration – Arboretum, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2017 PX, MAMŰ Gallery, Budapest
2017 exhibition of the Hungarian Artists' Book Readers Society, Oliver Bonnin Gallery, Paris, (FR)
2017 Tér‑Képek, MAMŰ Gallery, Budapest
2017 MAMU stand, Art Market Budapest
, Budapest
2017 DUNAPEST Festival, #ERROR707 – Puppetry Theatre, Margaret Island
2017 Ronda Works Random II., MAMŰ Gallery, Budapest
2017 Final Layer II., Veres Church, Courtyard House Gallery
2017 Riders on the Mall / ROM /, MÜSZI, Budapest
2017 RGB, MAMŰ Gallery, Budapest
in the year 2016–30, West Hungarian University, Győr
2016 GIF EXHIBITION, MAMU Galéria, Budapest
2015 SMS, MAMŰ Gallery, Budapest
2015 Eurasian Art Festival, Konkuk University Gallery, Seoul (KR)
2014 Space Makers, MAMU Galéria, Budapest
2014 Exhibition by the Hungarian Artists' Bookbinders Society, Gallery IX. Budapest
2014 Úton-útfélen, Moving Csoport, Rovás Akadémia, Kassel, (SK)
2014 “Hungarian and Swedish Artist’s Books”, Association of Hungarian Artist‑Book Publishers, University Library of Umeå, Umeå (SWE)
2013 Open Book, the II International Drawing and Visual Graphics Biennial, Győr
2013 Talking Pictures, Hegyvidék Gallery, Budapest
2013 Crisis, Europe Gallery, Brasov (RO)
2013 Szárnyaló – “Madarak” in the visual arts, Borsos Miklós Museum, Győr
2013 Art Expo FRISS, Art Mill, Szentendre
2012 Place as inspiration, PP centre, Budapest
2011 I. International Drawing and Graphic Biennale, Győr
2011 Moving Group at the Magia Mundi festival, Nossen (GER)
2011 XXV. Miskolci Grafikai Triennálé, Miskolc
2011 Hungarian-Englesi Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, Kraków (PL)
2011 Eastern European Printmakers Today, Muskatstudios, Boston (USA)
2010 I. Transylvanian Graphic Biennial, Sepsisszentgyörgy (RO)
2010 Visions of the Future, Siemens Forum, Munich (GER)
2009 Győr City Art Museum – Hungarian Institute – Győr
2009 XII International Biennial of Small Graphics and Exlibris, Ostrów Wielkopolski (PL)
2009 II Goldener Kentaur Competition, Münchner Künstlerhaus, Munich (GER)
Exhibition moments
Images from a shared history
Solo and group exhibitions
Exhibitions at Godot 7
Kol-labor 2026
25 September 2026 – 18 October 2026
Godot Labor Galéria
KOL-LABOR '25
18 September 2025 – 19 October 2025
Godot Labor Galéria
Loretta Lau: As Far, as Exile
28 November 2024 – 9 February 2025
Godot Kortárs Művészeti Intézet
KOL-LABOR '24
20 September 2024 – 3 November 2024
Godot Labor Galéria
KOL-LABOR '22
22 September 2022 – 16 October 2022
Godot Labor Galéria
KOL-LABOR '21
22 September 2021 – 31 October 2021
Godot Labor Galéria
KristofLab: ERROR
3 March 2021 – 9 May 2021
Godot Labor Galéria