Nagy Gábor György: Karambol

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An exhibition resurrected from the Godot Gallery’s original WordPress archive.

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The Godot Gallery respectfully invites you

Nagy Gábor György

Karambol

at the opening of the exhibition titled

The exhibition will be opened by:

László Hemrik

art critic

On 28 of April 2004 at 20 o’clock.

Nagy Gábor György studied in the painting department at the College of Fine Arts under Zsigmond Károlyi, in 1995, and then immediately turned to graphics, working with copper plate and cold‑wax techniques. He primarily examined the simplest geometric forms – circle, pyramid, rectangular column – and his works reveal a fascination with crumbling surfaces and textures. The 1997 year marks a turning point in his art: alongside traditional methods he began experimenting with the possibilities offered by computers, computer‑printed works.

This period forces many artists to make a change: monochrome, non‑figurative, reductionist movements gradually begin to recede into the background. The impulses for innovation come from popular culture, a fundamentally figurative visual environment, foregrounding the mediatisation of genres; artists start working with images created by others, thereby becoming users and consumers themselves. The works do not feed on the first‑hand, primary experiences, but instead react to already‑existing images, producing an endless series of remixes from them.

Nagy Gábor György’s two most characteristic series from this period are the **Federico copy** and the **Morandi copy**. The former deals with one of the most reproduced works in art history – an image of Federico da Montefeltro painted by Piero della Francesca – while the latter re‑frames traditional still‑life variations by moving a few glass bottles. He also makes similar transcriptions in pastel technique: he manipulates Géricault’s painting titled “Epsom Derby” **1821‑es**. First he compresses it, then creates a thin, thread‑like drawing from it, and finally places it behind frosted glass. In the second variation he stretches the composition, and in the third he rotates it around its centre: for those who have ever worked or played with a computer‑drawing programme, this is no surprise.

Spiral motion characterises the work of Gábor György Nagy. Some motifs and themes will disappear for years, only to reappear in his creations. The strong, almost blaring, advertising‑laden intensity of figurative art is suddenly superseded by a metaphysical mood, a quiet, monochrome immersion. The same pattern applies to the artistic genres themselves. Painting, the unique drawing, oil and pastel alternate with a variety of multiplied processes, including photo‑based C‑prints, copperplate, and cold‑needle techniques. The latest works on display at Godot Gallery reveal a new facet of the artist, as visitors can encounter both oil‑on‑canvas and copperplate pieces. This time the artist focuses on the simplest shape, the sphere; in the gallery’s small room a pastel study series of a one‑year‑old boy’s birthday cake may be viewed.

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