Ákos Bánki was born in 1982 in Kazincbarcika. He developed his artistic skills under Sándor Molnár and Tamás Lossonczy at the Magyar Képzőművészeti Egyetem (Hungarian University of Fine Arts) in Budapest (with a semester abroad at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, in 2002), from which he graduated in 2006. Through boundary-pushing abstract practices and laying the foundations of an alternative artistic and cultural network, Bánki has become one of the main figures of the new wave of non-figurative painting in Hungary.
Figuration has never found its place in Bánki’s oeuvre. A radical abstract artist, he draws on American abstract expressionism, Second World War modernism and on Hungarian painting traditions. Figurative photographs also intervene in the preparatory stages of the process as materials to be translated into an abstract vernacular. Physically, these inspirations – feeding into the absolute ideal of abstraction – manifest themselves as a highly gestural and instinctive full-body process. The resulting abstract product seeks to capture an emotive subconscious psychological state through colour.
Unsurprisingly, Bánki’s first and most influential series was entitled Psychological space, a series expressing inner power that mutated into the subsequent series Soulflower and The Dream of Dionysos. Much in the same way as the artist’s series inform each other, so does his use of scale. Although he primarily works with large-scale pieces, smaller satellite graphic creations have to be understood as pre- and post-studies of their monumental counterparts. From this point onwards, his artistic trajectory is towards ‘total abstraction’. This objective remains the core focus of his practice to this day, the goal around which he assesses and adapts his approach, visual language and future projects.
As a cultural figure, Bánki has been affiliated with the creation and direction of various galleries and exhibitions which have had a significant impact on the landscape of Hungarian contemporary art. In 2009, he was the artistic director and curator of the We Accept Them show dedicated to the art of Hungarian prison inmates organised by the Váltó-sáv Foundation. The following year, he founded, and became the artistic director of, the Roham Gallery.
In 2011, he collaborated with Géza Szöllősi from the Móricz Zsigmond Theatre in Nyíregyháza in preparation for the artistic identity of the institution’s staging of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
Bánki currently lives and works in Budapest.
