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Artist Exhibitions:
Painting exhibitions reflected
by the invisible world:
Solo exhibitions:
Duo Design Gallery "The art of
Journey" - Budapest - 2008
Bank Center Art Studio
„Wandering in the garden of
remembrance”
Budapest – 2008*
Bank Center és Szalóky Gallery
„Pilgrim of Worlds”, Budapest
– 2007*
KOS Gallery, Kosice, Slovakia
- 2006
Zemplén Gallery „Shepherd ...
Further Information
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Artist Galleries:
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Artist Reviews:
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Collections:
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Commissions:
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Artist Statement for Adam Balogh
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The chromatic abstractionist
"Adam Balogh"
Balogh's paintings might be seen as experiments in textural disruption. They begin with flat hazy surfaces resembling thin but uneven veils of cloud illuminated by the moon or the sun in different stages of dusk or dawn. The surfaces are then rippled, subtly like a lake drizzled on, dramatically like a conflagration or itinerantly like the path of an excited particle. A chromatic abstractionist would have stopped at the hazy surface. Balogh wonders what would happen if he placed his finger in a Rothko and swirled around a bit.&<8232;&<8232;When the rippling is moderate, Balogh's paintings evoke something vast, something galactic and ambient. There might be something nascent and microscopic stirring, leaving imprints (which not only bestow texture but seem to introduce new colors) many times larger than the imperceptible thing in motion. In the pieces where texture dominates, the hazy surface seems less liquid and more like a membrane, which veiny structures stretch but can't quite burst through.&<8232;&<8232;-Eugene Hwang art writer New York, US
The ceremonial opening of Adam Balogh’s second photo and painting exhibition „Wandering in the Garden of Remembrance” will be held by His Excellency Irvash Ali Reza, the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Andrea Némethy, art historian and publicist in the Bank Center Atrium on the day of vernal equinox which is also the celebration of the Persian New Year, on Thursday, March 20 2008, at 6 p.m.
The exhibition will be open for visitors at the Bank Center Gallery (1054 Budapest, Szabadság tér 7.) between March 10 and April 18, 2008.
Adam Balogh has been presenting his works in individual and group exhibitions since 2000. The artist’s perceptive, open personality and the impact of his exotic journeys in Central and South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East are reflected in his art.
Now putting on a pilgrim’s cloak, he invites spectators to Iran’s fascinating, mystical scenes, grasping truly special moments from the hospitable world of the Thousand and One Nights. The exhibition is complex as it reflects the imprint of an external as well as an internal journey: the photos of a visible world and the beyond-the-veil paintings behind it, which depict the flow of life invisible for the eye but perceptible for the heart. Snapshots, genre paintings depict a distant and strange yet familiar culture and transmit the sensation as if we were there. Looking deep into these photos, they tell about the love of life and philanthropy of the people living there, about the miracle of the moment. The paintings that were inspired by this explorational journey make it complete: the people living in this hidden garden of our world created are also seeking the answers to the universal, eternal questions of mankind.
Adam Balogh’s photos have been published in several itineraries in Hungary and abroad as well. His paintings are spiritual pieces about our life and being that are comprehensible and perceptible for everybody. They have been on display in several exhibitions abroad.
Andrea Némethy
Translated by Sándor Joó
„Know the world from end to end is a mirror;& E1 6SA > London > UK
The exhibition can be visited from 21st November – 3rd December 2007. Opening Private View - Wednesday 21st Nov between 6-9pm
The Storyteller
The famous artist mesmerizes us again and again by the purity, emotional density of his paintings and by presenting us with the positive values that we all long for. The picture composition called Cosmic Altar that consists of such paintings as „Blessing of Yesterday, a Glitter of Hope and Orion’s Flower” has a telling name and helps those tired of the struggles of everyday life to dream, to be able to dream and believe again. … The essence of these meditative pictures and visionary paintings is that they involve the beholder in creating the experience. The work of art has a transmitting role, it is a print of the painter’s thoughts and feelings. It is as if we had a dream. And not just as an outsider. We are awaited, expected here and asked to step into these pictures of existence to help build them further, according to our own visions-emotions-thoughts.
So Adam Balogh’s paintings have a different effect on each viewer. Some are touched by the density and warmth of his colors, emotional people feel like they had a soft blanket or a warm pat. Associative types will discover metonymies and realize more and more connections. Some will just stop … And who knows what we will discover in the mystical world of painting phantasies.
It is a peaceful world where everything has its place and purpose since the pictures allude to the infinite, the eternal beyond time and space. The universal images of a mystical world born by internal experience are palpable for all of us.
The phantasy world is alien yet familiar as if we had already been here floating between dreaming and awakening. It takes us out of our everyday world, the common „reality”, showing us the birth of soul, departure or arrival, as Orion’s Flower waits. It shows us ourselves. Do we get an momentary insight into the meaning of life? Creation? Existence? We can feel communion and togetherness in whirls of light. There are so many watching over us as the human figures embracing and holding each other as a tree of life in Blessing of Yesterday. As if we were looking at a family tree …or we were participating in a reincarnation journey where the human forms helping and supporting each other look as if they were emerging from the deep layers, memories of the soul. The souflames protect, helo and guide
each other carrying light and create life. Isn’t it the Glitter of Hope? We, the people ourselves? The inner fire in togetherness and love fascinates the viewer. The human figures consisting of the soulflames intertwine and form more and more shapes, perhaps a face? Who knows…
Love and respect of life and searching for the meaning of it: who are we, where do we come from, where are we going? It is an adventurous journey into the depth of the soul. Is it phantasy or „another” reality? Who or what is Orion’s Flower, what does Glitter of Hope bring us? What does Blessing of Yesterday mean?
To express the hidden, the invisible, and to delectate and remind us of beauty, that’s what art is for. As always, Ádám Balogh’s paintings teach us to fly in thought and imagination, to love ourselves, our human existence and nature. They help us to get closer to ourselves, submerge into ’Freudian’ depths, emerge from there rejuvenated, with old wisdom, new knowledge and hope. And to dream freely.
Andrea Némethy– art historian 2007
Translated by Sándor Joó
Adam Balogh’s first combined photo and painting exhibition, „Pilgrim of worlds” will be opened by Her Excellence Sonia Díaz Llera, the Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba, His Excellence Juan Salazar Sancisi the Ambassador of the Republic of Ecuador and Andrea Némethy art historian in the Bank Center Atrium at 6 p.m. on Thursday, 11th January, 2007.
The artist’s sensitive, open personality and his exotic travels in Central and South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East are reflected in his works.
Ádám Balogh has displayed his paintings in joint and individual exhibitions since 2000. This year he began to show his photos to the public as well. His pictures have been published in several travel books in Hungary and abroad alike.
The current exhibition is complex, conveying the visible and the underlying invisible world. His photos show exotic landscapes of our planet, stills, faces, snapshots, while his paintings are looking for the answers to the inconceivable, eternal questions of humanity.
The photographic material lure the visitor to the adventurous and magical scenes of Cuba and Ecuador, grasping truly special moments, the ever-present beauty of nature.
The paintings were also inspired by these adventurous travels of exploration. The fantasy world is strange yet familiar at the same time, as if we had visited it at the verge of dream and awakening. They are spontaneous, dream-like, spiritual pieces born by vision-emotion-notion; universal images that are comprehensible and perceptible for any beholder.
Ádám Balogh’s paintings are markers of a road, you get time and space when you look into their depths. You get freedom, Curiosity. The present. The moment. Mankind might not ever get a clear answer for the questions he asks in his images, but until then … ‘Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow is but a vision, all yesterdays are the dreams of happiness, all tomorrows are but a glimmer of hope, so take care of what you do with today.’ (Sanskrit)
/The Explorer – 2007. Year 3., issue 1. /"
to the Infinite
This is the title of the exhibition displaying Ádám Balogh’s paintings in Deak Palace, in the newly-established Hungarian branch office of Fortis Bank. The motto of this new, opening exhibition is a verse from William Blake: 'If the doors of perception were cleansed we would see everything as it is, infinite.’ His canvases convey the perspective of a child that still grasps the world as a whole, the creative imagination controlled by the rational mind of an adult, as well as the wisdom of old age. His method of creation is to project images retrieved from the unconscious. He is seeking a form for his internal impulses, and this quest is manifested in his paintings. The miracle of the image is the internal content, which appears in the creator and the beholder as well. But if you want to experience it, you must be present. Stop. Now. And watch in silence. Feel and live it, since it is art that can best express the inconceivable, the universe.
Ádám Balogh was born in Budapest 1971 and went to Margit Kaffka High School. He studied drawing with art teacher Ágnes Katalin Kis, who had worked together with such artists as Zoltán Tölg-Molnár, Szilárd Sztojka. Under the guidance of his teacher, Ádám’s weekends were spent on performing various art-related tasks. Although he continued his education in the University of Agriculture in Gödöllõ, he kept on making graphics, using various techniques, and eventually he decided to make oil paintings on canvas. He has been displaying his works together with other painters since 2000 and has had individual exhibitions since 2002. His early period is marked by such exhibition halls as Lurdy, István Csók Gallery, Antenna Hungária Átrium Gallery, Lajos Gulácsy Gallery, Café Vian and East-West Business Center.
At this time, Ádám Balogh was already interested in the eternal, common human issues. The canvases of the artist, who is sensitive to the celestial and immanent spheres, manifested the initial visual forms of this internal quest, displaying the unspeakable. In this period, he was still working with more pre-designed compositions, divided spaces, moderate colours and figurative elements floating in front of a background. Then he made more dynamic paintings with full colours, pieces that were not restricted by composition and proportion. The secrets of being were lying in their depths. The evanescent, human-like images were either materializing or just blending into the immaterial, glimmering through the timeless ‘sfumato’-like background, which perhaps was a scene of multiple plots at the same time. Angels, Zeus-like figures, archetypal, universal symbols, indeterminable biological and astronomic phenomena were floating there, apparently without any relation. What do they mean? Who knows? Because the so-called visionary painting has a unique, mystical content. It takes you out of everyday life to make you see existence from a new perspective. To see the infinite.
Man is the key. The picture is ’incomplete’, the spectator can continue dreaming the flow of thoughts. Therefore these images have different impacts on each viewer. Some are grasped emotionally, others behold the content and are looking for metonymy. Some just stand in silence and become the image themselves …
… and can be analyzed based on the aesthetic standards of the past, or the multi-colouredness of the present, be compared to surrealist painting, but – just as my fellow art historian Gábor Pogány said – he cannot be put into any category. His receptive, open personality is reflected in his art, as well as the impacts of his exotic travels in Central and South America, Central and South East Asia. Some kind of transcendence glimmers through. His paintings are material imprints of his internal flow of thoughts and emotions, and the series of movements triggered by them.
In his next period, he was making more cheerful canvases representing a mystical, immaterial world. They were implying the infinite, beyond time and space. Was it another, external, distant, or an internal, close world? The pictures of these exhibitions also represented unrepeatable events in the following locations: Café Angelika, Pro Arte Gallery, Bálint Jewish Community Center, Bank Center, Volksbank Gallery, Valley of Arts, Hotel Andrássy, Zuijderduijn Art, Duna TV, La Gro Advocaten, Shrine of Seven Free Arts. This period presented an alien yet familiar sphere: the border of micro-and macrocosmos, the inanimate becomes animate, the male-female principles are created, half-real, half ghost-like figures appear. They are healthy, philosophical, metaphysical works. The artist condensed all this into one moment, where the walls of the past, the fears and hopes of the future disappear, so the Universe becomes detectable, conceivable by the senses. As hearing and sight reveal reality and evaluation, judgement disappears from the present, the now, what remains is curiosity. Absorbance and acceptance. Man becomes unlimited, learns to listen. Inwards. It is the freedom of the beholder to make a decision to fly, to discover and explore themselves. The infinite might be close to us. Perhaps here… inside us.
And this is the message of Ádám Balogh’s latest paintings. They are more refined images, suggesting that the artist is going on the road of self-recognition, leading the spectators and finding answers. Evaporable yet stable, a dynamically stationary world, where everything is alive, and there is a constant change going on in the depth of the image space. Sensitive, lyrical, non-figurative pieces. His canvases glitter like a penetrative, smooth water surface that reveal Freudian depths, it is a dream-like misty world, a crystal mirror of the painter’s mental processes. The spectator can also identify with this meditative atmosphere. The current exhibition consists of images that are less multi-mooded yet expressive and fascinating: Falling into Eternity, Souldance, Nightfall (Nocturnal dance of blessed souls). The veil- or flame-like apparitions are even less graspable as in his earlier works. Is it an angel or a soulflame that guards you? Ádám Balogh’s pictures have multiple layers, the titles trigger creative thought. Bodies and souls melted into each other, journey of reincarnation, figures of past or future lives. Full colour spots, beaming whirls of light float in the timeless and borderless images. The central part is more defined, the sides of the painting are blurred into twilight. After the quest for the secrets of existence, he leads us back to ourselves, our own culture, the beginning. Nimród’s dream confesses about the preservation of values in our legends, while Vision of the lamb relates to religious mythology. The journey takes us deeper and deeper into ourselves to find our internal power and to submerge again with an open mind, interested in ourselves and others. In the remotest nook of my mind, the glittering or seemingly grave events-emotion built in the depths of consciousness control your actions and relations in everyday life. If you want to communicate soul to soul with yourself and others, you need a tabula rasa, and then the The fifth gate, the fifth throat chakra opens to others. Communication is a gate to each other. And your signals will be answered by A touch of blessing. Hugs and strokes represent the immortality of the soul and a positive flow of thought. Something true appears in Ádám Balogh’s paintings, eliciting intensive emotions from art experts and viewers alike.
When the collection for an exhibition is compiled, there is always something new created. Even if there is no specific theme to bind the pictures together, they still complement each other, and the collocation of the images creates a new meaning.
Ádám Balogh’s paintings are markers of a road, you get time and space when you look into their depths. You get freedom, Curiosity. The present. The moment. Mankind might not ever get a clear answer for the questions he asks in his images, but until then … ‘Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow is but a vision, all yesterdays are the dreams of happiness, all tomorrows are but a glimmer of hope, so take care of what you do with today.’ (Sanskrit)
Andrea Némethy– art historian 2006.
Translated by Sándor Joó
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