OFFSETTING
The opening exhibition of Horizont Gallery
Solo show of Gábor Kristóf
Offsetting can be perceived as a journey on the borders of a spectrum of media and genres - painting, offset printing, film and photography. Gábor Kristóf maps and challenges the boundaries of classical painting with a focus on the prevailing conditions and specificities of image making.
The opening exhibition of Horizont Gallery showcases his newest works created by freezing and exploiting the nature and the technical particularities of offset printing. The functionless, scrap printing plates and blankets that are transplanted from their original environment to the gallery space are in fact spin-offs of the process of creating hundreds of thousands of prints (newspapers, book, posters among others). Kristóf condenses found objects and scenes into images, therefore his artistic practice and attitude bears more resemblance to the act of appropriation than to classical painting.
The protagonist of the exhibition is, undeniably, the image -- the self-reflexive image that persistently transfigures itself between genres and media; changes its reputation, value and its degree of accessibility (in terms of theorist David Joselit - transitivity of images). Though, the primary message of the works on display is not the commonplace that we are surrounded by a steadily growing number of images but, instead, they drive our attention to the fact that there is still a lot more beyond the image-making industry determining our knowledge about the world.
Gábor Kristóf (1988, Košice-Kassa, Czechoslovakia) graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2014 as a painter. In 2015 he received the Derkovits Scholarship supporting emerging artists. In 2014 he exhibited in the framework of the exhibition series entitled Private Nationalism in Pécs and Košice. In 2013 he was shortlisted for the Essl Art Award CEE.
Founded in 2015, Horizont Gallery works with Hungarian and international contemporary artists active mainly in the fields of painting, installation art and new media. The gallery showcases progressive and experimental artistic practices in the framework of exhibitions, art fairs and other projects in and outside Budapest. The antecedent of the gallery is the art management agency Inventio Arts that, due to the kick-off of the gallery, suspends its activites until further notice.
On view: between 20 May and 24 June 2015
Exhibition opening: 20 May 7PM
Opened by: Orsolya Török-Illyés and Szabolcs Hajdu
Artist: Gábor Kristóf
IMG: KRISTÓF Gábor: Heidi: Hommage á Mondrian, 2013, 79 x 105 cm | scrap printing blanket
ONLINE Catalogue: http://issuu.com/horizont1/docs/kristof_gabor_offsetting_katalogus_/1