András Kállai
A few thoughts about my works
Guardians series:
My 'Guardians' works are inspired by old photographs of people from different cultures, without the concept of being (externally) identical to the referenced pictures. I want to recreate the strong pressence, the static connection as well as the momentary expererience from these fading cultures. The photos that inspire me carry the reality experienced at that exact moment captured and thus have an absolute, eternal human quality. It is this quality that connects people across space and beyond the boundaries of time. These works are (also) characterized by a strong frontal composition. There are few spatial elements, the picture plane is divided in two parts by the horizon. In some examples one or two houses appear in the background as an allusive landscape.
Human existence and questions of identity:
Self-reflections. Childhood memories, desires and projections of the essential reality of everyday life, wich accompany one's journey and build their character and personality. The man is depicted in the vertical and horizontal sense: The earthly being who has antennae to detect the vibrations of the different dimensions of existence.
It's projetion is the art...
Meetings with myself, personality traits, the part-whole relationship of complex human identy slices.
The figure of the common ancestor appears.
Totem animals and their riders, the being related to them:
Animal depictions are very common in my works. I call these creatures "absolute" (totem) animals, which are animal-creature hybrids. They conjure and cite the properties and knowledge of various animals. They are mysterious, the holders of ancient knowledge so it is impossible to fully udnerstand them. They help the shaman, the person to communicate with the spirit reallm in his journey between words. In my paintings and sculptures, people are carried on their backs, almost growing together....
Father-son / God-man relationship:
I am my father's blood and my son (child) is blood from my blood.
How ae we one, yet separate beings? What are the similatities and what are the differences that connect and disstance us? How do we become one?
How are these connections present int the relationship between God and man?
Shield series:
A falling, defensive figure with fragmented limbs, still creating a uniform shape. It seems like he's whole only by being fragmeted. Defensively he holds a shiled in front of him that has fused to his arm, but this movement is more of a routine than a visceral gesture. The shield is a protective attribute that comes with the power of thought... it refers to the mirror, a shaman's drum, to the sun and the moon as likewise. The figure is not so theatrical, rather it is "frozen" in a stretching, twisting movement. In my paintings this figurre with a shield is sometimes depicted with several faces and limbs.
Henrik Kállai
I was born in 1976, I graduated in 2002 form the drawing-media department of the University of Szeged. I have participated in numerous national and international solo and group exhibitions. My work was exposed in Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, and most recently my works were connectet to the production design of the Aleco performance of the Chicago Opera.
In Hungary, among others I have exhibited at the French Institute, Menü Pont Gallery, Három Holló (Three Ravens) and I also participated in the "Festészet Napja" in Szolnok with my work, the 'World-Creature' (Világlény). I participated in the "Festészet Napja" in Törökbálint with my work 'Refuge'. My works were shown in the Art Market Budapest contemporary art fair in 2023.
I have been making short films and video works since 1998. I attended the Veresegház Art Colony every year, wich is organied by my brother András Kállai, and I was also a member of the Sostar group organized by him, which dealt with reformulating the representation of Romani visual art.
Ars Poetica:
I am most interested in how to capture the mysticism that seeps into everyday life, wich becomes noticeable if we pay attention to it. Mysticism is often manifested in people's reality, everyday life, joy and pain: as the most simple activities in life hold magical power, as the live speech are reclassified as magical. The people's power to life is great magic, as magic is nothing but power. Power, wich can help us build stenght over ourselves and the wolrd, and wich can help us survive reality and magic itself.
How can reality, everyday life and mysticism be entwined together? How can the sacred and the profane appear in the same time and space? When the tapestry of the church was split in two, the strong border between the mortal world and the divine was reevaluated and became crossable.
My goal is to create a painting system, wich includes both worlds at the same time. I want to introduce allegorical figures that embody the transcendent world into compositions that depict the reality of people, the everyday life. One of the aspects of my painting endeavor is to redefine the symbolism of creatures of the past, especially the dragon creatures, to apply their guarding, protecting, whatchful role to our present time.
The wording of these "creatures" is always methaphorical, but I don not endow them with specific biblical or mythological attributes. One of my endeavors is to make them ethereal through stylization, symbol simplification and other means. So, in many cases, I dont"t try to present a creature, but The creature. My goal is to show all of this in a wide variety of ways, raging from symbolic formulations to tragic expressive ways.
I thread my voice with spiritual content and I allow myself great freedom and complete transition between various forms and techniques of expression.
The imagery of past ages is primarily of a transcendental nature, the visual art of our present has - in my opinion - deviated a little bit from this original function and thus is limited to self-expression, aesthetic expression, and entertainment. I opened my "antennae" to restore the origina function. I want to create a synthesis of the past and the present, both spiritually and technically, why trying to build my own meaning and private mythology.
Events:
08. 12. 2023. - Roundtable discussion with exhibiting András Kállai and Henrik Kállai, art manager Boróka Pénzes, and associate professor József Gaál
