Attila Szűcs was born in Miskolc in 1967. The Hungarian has honed his craft extensively, attending the Budapest Fine Art and Applied Art Secondary School (1980-1984), then graduating from the Painting Department of the Magyar Képzőművészeti Főiskola (today the Hungarian University of Fine Arts) in Budapest (1985-1990) before embarking on a postgraduate degree at the university’s Mural Department (1990-1993).
Although his oil painting technique, which he adopted in the early 1990s, is rooted in tradition, his inspiration is both novel and personal in equal measure. Indeed, visually, the popular media informs his practice: TV images, newspaper cut-outs, postcards, film stills – all find their way into his work, whether explicitly or implicitly. However, it is what Szűcs seeks to create that truly sets his art apart. Each painting seeks to capture a feeling and a place that lies in-between dream and reality, memory and vision. Composition plays a fundamental role in achieving this perceptive effect. The artist focuses on high-density snapshots and voids. As the artist explains: ‘I create empty spaces around the objects of thoughts and figures without defining them in a preconceived notion’. In doing so, the spectator is forced to contextualise the object themselves, which leads them to draw into their and perhaps our ‘collective memory’. Halfway between recognition and ignorance, familiarity and strangeness, each painting seeks to lead us beyond our assumptions.
Light, shadows, objects and colour combinations all participate in an ensemble that reaches into the past to question the present.
Szűcs’ recent solo exhibitions include: Abundance of doubt and wonder, Erika Deák Gallery, Budapest (2021); Transhuman études, Centrul de Interes, Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár, Romania (2020); Solo Show, Wizard Gallery, London/Milan (2020); EXIST (2020); Az eltűnés intenzitásai, A38 Hajó, Budapest (2020); Art Market Budapest 2020, Erika Deák Gallery, Budapest (2020); Solo Show with FL Gallery, Art Verona PAD12, Stand H14, Verona (2019); Rajzok, Pannonhalmi Bencés Gimnázium Galériája, Pannonhalma (2019); Portraits from the beginning of the 21st century, Federico Luger (FL Gallery), Milan (2018); Inside the Black Box, Erika Deák Gallery, Budapest (2018); Summer Art Salon, KODL Gallery, Prague (2018); Preparing for Lightness, Emmanuel Walderdorff Galerie, Düsseldorf (2017); Transients, Ferenczy Museum, Szentendre (2017); Waiting for the Unknown, Federico Luger (FL Gallery), Milan (2016); Spectres and Experiments, Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2016); Vertical Attractions, Erika Deák temporary Munich Gallery, Munich (2015); The Nude in the XXth and XXIst Century, S/2, London (2015); Nightfall, Rudolfinum Gallery, Prague (2013).
Szűcs lives and works in Budapest.
