Opening: 29 November 2018
Opened by Dr Olivér Botár Jr, the curator of the Salgo Trust for Education, professor of art history at the University of Manitoba
András Böröcz belongs to the generation whose career started in the 1980s. Recognising the contradictions and tensions of the Hungarian reality of the time, many of these artists simultaneously saw both sides of the events that defined the era, and thus, underlying the ironic depiction of their works is a peculiar melding of heroic and mediocre features of man’s momentary situation and those of the human condition. Their acute sense of the grotesque combined with a unique way of seeing and expression has created unexpected twists and a new idiom, which was unusual in the fine arts.
András Böröcz was born in 1956. He studied at the painting department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts from 1977 to 1982, and he completed the institution’s master school in 1982 and 1983. He won the Derkovits scholarship in 1983 and the scholarship of the Canadian Banff Center of Fine Arts in 1988. Miklós Erdély played a great role in his artistic development and it was him who introduced the artist to the activities of underground art groups (Indigo, Fafej) and acquainted him with the Avant-garde way of thinking and creative methods.
He has lived in New York since 1985; he became a sculptor here.
He regularly participates in the international and domestic exhibition scene.
After becoming familiar with the non-profit gallery scene, he and his brother co-founded the 2B Gallery in Budapest in 2004.
The current exhibition shows the artist’s well known works preserved in domestic collections along with his sculptures made in the USA from 1985 to the present day. Besides outlining the most important ideas Böröcz is exploring and illustrating the creativity of his forms and use of materials, the exhibits also reveal a characteristic way of thinking through which true meaning underneath the surface is uncovered with the humility of a craftsman and the daring of an Avant-garde inventor.
Curator: Kovalovszky Márta
Curator’s assistant: Zsuzsanna Tulipán