I was born in Budapest, Hungary, into a family in which most of my relatives worked as well educated vegetable growers or doctors, predominantly surgeons, one of my grandfathers was a spine surgeon expert, and the other a soccer referee, and also worked at the Hungarian National Railway Company in Communism, my grandmas were mostly managing the household matters. While i was a lot with them my parents were working like workaholics, they liked their professions and also wanted to build middle class living standards.
My mother worked as a lawyer, and my father was an important journalist and editor-in-chief at newspapers and television companies. I grew up spending much of my time in the land in the countryside, or in the hospital area, where my grandpa was the director where people got rehabilitated after operations, he their home was even situated inside the grounds of the rehabilitation institute.
I think that was a crucial and diverse effect on my life that on 1 side we belonged to the land in the countryside, and on the other as a medical family to humans and their bodies in the hospital where they made operations. Both trends are indeed in the circulation of a communal activity, of course such as many other kinds of works. Water polo was kind of a tradition, such as hunting for large beasts and dealing with transgenerational traumas. At the age of 6 I was brutally traumatized by two monsters, in different occasions.
I lived in South Africa one and a half years and worked as a water polo coach there when i was 19 YO. Not long after my professional sport career, I completed my studies on cinematography in the School of Visual Arts in Sydney in 2001, to name one of the most inspiring director ever is Béla Tarr for me. At the Sydney Film festival they highlighted his work as a milestone in film history. When returned to Budapest I got occupied as a documentarist photographer for about 15 years. At 168 Hours for 12 years, a leading political weekly founded by Ákos Mester who was a key figure in journalism, heartfully mindblowing contents, with very inspiring collegaues made my path radical about how i think about life, later worked as picture editor for magazines.
My ongoing long-term work started in 2011, In the beginning it contained an ensemble of landscapes, abstractions, and objects photographed. In 2016 I started also making self-portraits and let in more and more conceptional ideas and different mediums of artmaking into my workflow.
Practicing a widened method of Fine Art, I explore several kinds: photography, drawing, painting, sculpturing, creating object, installation and performance.
selected solo exhibitions:
2019. Passport, curated by Lina Sophie Stallmann and Daniel Spivakov, Stallmanns Art Consulting / London, England.
2016. Fusion, curated by Gabriella Csizek,Month of Photography, Hungarian Cultural Institute / Bratislava, Slovakia.
2015. Impasse, curated by Gabriella Uhl, FUGA Budapest Center of Architecture / Budapest, Hungary.
2014. Impasse, House of the European Union / Budapest, Hungary.
selected group exhibitions:
2023. Replanning, curated by György Cséka w/ "Passport", Institute of Contemporary Art - (ICA-D) / Dunaújváros, Hungary.
2022. Art in Book Forms w/ "Passport", curated by Anita Farkas & Idil Emiroglu / @Izole, Manyi Cultural Workshop / Budapest, Hungary.
2019. Deepflows, curated by Rita Somosi & Klara Szarka, MODEM Center-Modern&ContemporaryArt / Debrecen, Hungary.
2019. Perspectives, curated by Rita Somosi & Klara Szarka, Budapest Photo Festival, Kiscelli Museum / Budapest, Hungary.
2018. Found a mentalism, curated by Antka Hofmann & Andrea Hilger, Ostrale, International Visual Arts Festival / Messina Palace, Malta.
2017. Re_form, curated by Oliver Kratz, Ostrale'O17-Biennale for Contemporary Art, Ostra Park / Dresden, Germany.
2016. Regi/on, curated by Reka Kenez, Studio of Young Photographers Hungary, City Gallery / Kalocsa, Hungary.
2016. Pictures & Pixels | National Salon, curated by Klara Szarka, Kunsthalle / Budapest, Hungary.
2015. Heritage: Socialism and after, curated by Edit Barta, Hungarian Museum of Photography / Kecskemet, Hungary.
2014. Budapest our metropolis, curated by Ipek Fusun, Hungarian Cultural Institute / Istambul, Turkey.
2014. Photographies Suisses et Hongroises, curated by Zsazsi Chaillet, Nest Gallery / Genéve, Suisse.
2014. All Is, curated by Peter Koppanyi and Akos Banki, Latarka Gallery / Budapest, Hungary.
2014. Landscape Experience, curated by Gabriella Uhl, Photo Biennale, Castle Museum / Esztergom, Hungary.
2014. Common ground, curated by Anna Balazs, Studio of Young Photographers, Art Bazis Gallery / Budapest, Hungary.
2013. Budapest Water Summit, Hungarian House of Photography / Budapest, Hungary.
2013. Present Continous, curated by Gabriella Csizek, Hungarian House of Photography / Budapest, Hungary.
2013. Close Encounters, curated by Laszlo L. Revesz, KultureAxe Gallery / Wien, Austria.
scholarships, awards:
2014. Photoport International Portfolio Review, Budapest / Best Portfolio award
2013. Photoport International Portfolio Review, Budapest / Special Prize
2012. Photo Ireland Festival / shortlisted
2009. Scholarship of Hungarian National Cultural Fund
works in collections:
Hungarian Museum of Photography, Kecskemet, Hungary
Ostrale - Centre for Contemporary Art in Dresden, Germany
Privately owned works in Amsterdam, Budapest, and Geneva
selected publications:
2020. Excercises in self-portrait, written by György Cséka esthete, art critic and curator for @Punkt.hu / Hungary
2020. Self-DIY, written by Márió Z.Nemes, poet, esthete, critic, curator for @ArtPhoto / Hungary
2019. Passport Softcover book / Published by Innen in Zurich / 120 pages / Color Offset Printed
2017. Demarcation Zine / Published by Innen in Zurich / 32 pages / Color Photocopy
2016. Gaia Conti, Le eco del passato, #AImagazine-Fall2016, Greta Edizioni / Italy
2016. Slow melancholy by Rita Somosi in Art Photography Magazine #2016/1 / Budapest
2014. Art Photography Magazine # 2013/4 / Budapest
2013. Present Continous Book # 7 - The Hungarian House of Photography / Budapest
2013. Lodown Magazine # 85 Berlin, Germany
2012. Zug Magazine # 3 / Published by Innen in Zurich
For further information or enquiries please contact via info@gasparrisko.com.