This year, the STRABAG Building Co. (the legal successor of the Hungarian Asphalt Co.) launched the 6th Competition for Young Painters. Unlike in previous years, there was only one prize-winner and four studio grants selected by a jury of three members (Dr. Loránd Hegyi, Márta Kovalovszky and Katalin Néray). The participants clearly represented the high standard of the young Hungarian generation of painting.
The winner is Eszter RADÁK, whose paintings bespeak a logical pictorial language with clear lines. Initially, her banal motifs refer to elements of art history, but at the same time, ironically also criticise the physical world. For years, her systematic visual program has reflected a feminine theme and colour-sphere. Notions of the decorative art nouveau and the 1950s-and-60s Pop Art are also echoed. Her art is impressive in technical as well as thematic terms.
The studio grants were given to the following artists;
András DÁNIEL’s pictures are interesting and eclectic examples of a revised form of photo-realism, which are distinct from the original tendencies of the 1970s.
Katalin HAÁSZ’s works are the only non-figurative examples among this year’s participants. Precise forms are executed with great bravura, generating strong spatial relations and light effects suggestive of a virtual space.
Tibor ISKI KOCSIS bravely approaches kitsch Central European themes, simultaneously reflecting traditional portraiture.
Adrián KUPCSIK’s paintings represent the meeting point of virtual new media and cultural references, especially in the form of motifs characteristic of the sport-centric culture of totalitarian states.
Curator of the exhibition: Kata Krasznahorkai
