OUT OF BOUNDS - Exhibition

„For me, what I call organic merges with what I call abstract, which others call geometric. For me, these two things have never been separable. I have never decided what they symbolise separately.”

Lee Krasner, “Art Talk: Conversations with 15 women artists”

Out of Bounds: The exhibition explores the differences between geometric and organic abstraction through the work of painter Tomasz Piars (PL), sculptors Dániel Sallay (HU) and Nóra Szirmai (HU), and photographer Milán Rácmolnár (HU).

Biomorphic impulses create a dialogue between the selected paintings, sculptures and large-scale photographs. The visual experience is a cavalcade of forms borrowed from botany, biology, chemistry and even geology. The abstract sculptor Henry Moore believed that "unconsciously we all rely on universal natural forms, we rely on them constantly, as long as they are not suppressed by conscious control". Consequently, countless forms and objects are generated from our everyday lives, from our memories of landscapes, places and buildings, and certainly from memories of other artists' work.

The rise of organic abstraction in art in the 1940s and 1950s is well defined, yet its flowering has not ceased and can still be seen in art and design today. It is important to note, however, that it is not a specific artistic movement, but a creative toolbox defined by curved and regular forms and by natural forms: fluid visions that tangentially resemble natural shapes.

Although Tomasz Piars prefers to pursue the possibilities of geometric abstraction, his art also reveals systems that resemble atomic models floating in vibrantly coloured media. The forms of his art are sometimes small and densely concentrated, sometimes large and sprawling.

Dániel Sallay even offers his viewers hints as to how to interpret his works: his organic inspirations are often reflected in the titles of his objects. His curvaceous, free-flowing forms are an attractive sight to behold as a series of works drawn in three-dimensional space.

Nóra Szirmai's large-scale sculptures evoke organic structures with precision and clear reference. The pieces on display showcase the elegance of sculpture and the generosity of materials - characteristics that characterise the artist's entire oeuvre.

Milán Rácmolnár invites the viewer into an unexplored territory, yet the themes of the images may be familiar from somewhere. In the forms, the viewer discovers fictional landscapes, valleys, even the shapes of cities from an unknown past or future. These are hypothetical places, which are eventually swallowed up by the faded pall of nature.

All the pieces in Out of Bounds: Abstract / Organic / Biomorphic make the viewer wonder: is abstraction merely an aesthetic play with forms, or a complex representation of a unique organised (organic) system?

On view from 14 February 2022.
Location: Art Salon Contemporary Art Gallery - H-1081 Budapest, Népszínház street 29.
Visits are only possible by appointment.
Curator: Patrycja Rup