‘I do not merely

want to paint

something,

but as if creating it

for the first time.”

Dániel Karsai

dovin

Dániel Karsai: The White of the Teeth 11 Jan - 27 Febr 2013Szilvi Német essay - Gergely Ligetfalvi: Primarily PaintingPortrait of a young artist

2013 / I. vol.

- karsaidani.blogspot.com -

DÁNIEL KARSAI

THE WHITE OF THE TEETH

CURATED BY SZILVI NÉMET

11 JAN - 27 FEB 2013

WWW.DOVINGALLERY.COM

Enterieur

’05/11 ‘09 ‘13 ’12

’09’11 ’10

’08

HUNGARIAN ACADEMYOF FINE ARTS, PAINTING

BUDAPEST

ACCADEMIA DI BELLEARTI DI BRERA, MILANO

THE WHITE OF THE TEETHDOVIN, BUDAPEST

ART MARKET BUDAPESTART COLOGNE, KÖLN

ART PARIS, PARIS

ARTCAMPF AT ELNÖK STREET, BPGESTALT, GROUP, DOVIN, BP

FRESH 11, KOGART, BPDIPLOMA SHOW, ACADEMY, BPSEDUCTION OF BEAUTIFUL ART

GALERIE STEPHAN STUMPF, MÜNCHEN

VILLA LITTA, SELECTED SHOW OF ERASMUS STUDENTS,

MILANO

20 YEARS OF CHANGE, FRISS GALLERY, BPCOLLEGIUM HUNGARICUM, BERLIN

HUNGARIAN INSTITUTE, PARISCOLLEGIUM HUNGARICUM, VIENNA

ARTISTS AND MANAGERS, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BP

BUDAPEST ART EXPO, SZENTENDRE

&

DÁNIELKARSAI

CV

Today our hunger for images stretches to a level, where the longing for pictural contents is conditioned by our behavioral status: we both tend to produce and digest pictures, not to speak about the most actively performed mediating-sharing phenomenon. As the One, whose brain capacity allows the visual manifestation of a given thought grabs the whole process from the most tiresome part...The painting versus photography dilemma nowadays seems to have arrived at a ‘game over’ stage, as it has gradually loosened its edges over the hundreds of years, while the category-killing attitude called interdisciplinarity of postmodern theory gave a final kick. Although the long history of the two media in contra postition maintains some overtone. When touching down on questions of representation, the oldtimer academy (running a Fight Club in the verbal field) argued for the pro effects of developing technology (we finally got to know the position of horses’ feet when galloping), but discovered the contras (overdemocratization of the media, artwork losing its aura) of the same specific gravity.

Essay.Painting.

When the millenium closer to us has assisted the popularization of what-I-dont-photograph-does-not-exist lifestyle, now the web2 technology opens wide the window-sashes in front of our virtual eye, for which the world is no longer conveyed through canvas frames, but monitors ad primum. In these circumstances the issues on origin and originality above all came into discourse. If today (with the détournement of the Foucault slogan) “there is nothing that exist out of it” , with other words we can forget about tabula rasa once the ON button was pressed, it is still refreshing to see liberating gestures that come by head. In the hope for the experience-wasting contemporary manner to re-open to more dimensions, there is something that plays in polyphonia (and cathode-ray-free).

Szilvi Német

# Cannibal# Own lake# Trophy# Trap# Runaway# Magazine

primarily painting

BYGERGELY LIGETFALVI

“Tomorrow already? I’m not sure I can get myself together...” - says the young painter

a couple of minutes before the opening of his first solo show, when I ask him about my

visit to his studio.However, we soon manage to agree on the time. His fears prove

unfounded, but this is what I expected from Dániel Karsai anyway: he is an artist who

spent each and every afternoon developing his drawing skills already in secondary

school.

Soft expressivity, dissolving heads and surrealistic objects.When painting is

primary. Analysis of a promising talent of the youngest generation.

In the spacious halls of his studio, located in an industrial building, there is plenty of room for his large paintings; from his university years on, Karsai has been filling canvases of at least a square meter in size with his surrealistic paintings of enigmatic scenes and often sinister atmospheres. His pictures show human figures with blurred contours, surrounded by sets of objects whose relationship to each other is inexplicable. Heads reduced to mere patches are stripped down to an animalistic degree , or blurred beyong recognition. We see situations where the human figures and the objects represent equalvalues. When the elaboration of the details is more closely inspected, one may see that what at first appears to be figurative tends to dissolve into a blurred memory.

The techniques of the purely painterly predominate: there are impasto brush-strokes and spots of colour in restrained pastels.Although th argument that obscurity may better evoke the feeling of the sublime and of fear is well known from as early as Edmund Burke‘s 18th-century aesthetics, Karsai’s pictures never evoke horrific effects. “Of course, there are certain references of this kind, as in case of titles such as Target, Trap, The Catch, Hostage or Accident. However, for me these are rather the means of creating suspense. Some kind of tension forms in the work, and I solve this internal drama, I overwrite it, answer it or highlight it. But my works never have a strong dramaturgy or narrative - the juxtaposition of incongruous elements would make that impossible”, he says.

We quickly eliminate another oncept applied mistakenly - in my opinion - to his work: that of its supposedly dreamlike quality. “Dreams come up again and again when my works are discussed, but that is not my fault. I guess this is inevitable when someone paints such heterogeneous object ensembles. What matters most for me, however, is primarily painting. If you see a guy standing in front of a metal box in my picture, that does not mean anything other than a guy standing in front of a metal box. The way you formulate it must be strong enough to make a stand by itself. I try to make the formulation of the object and the scene as complex as if I did not merely want to paint it, but as if I was creating it for the first time. The characteristic situations must become more than the things themselves - ideally they must turn into some kind of a sign, of which painting itself is the meaning.” Representation does not play any role in the making of these pictures. “The picture - he explains - shapes itself. I do all the work, I use only my head, I don’t even use photos, I don’t make sketches. What matters most is the present moment.”

As a result of Karsai’s use of colour, blurred images and his uncertain, patchy surfaces one may get the impression of looking at enlarged watercolours. Karsai’s habit of often leaving broad areas uncovered also add to this effect. After my visit to his studio, I walked back to the gallery in the city. One can see the exhibition through the huge ground-floor windows of Dovin Gallery even at night,  from the street. That was when I actually realised how much these unpainted surfaces of the canvas glow in the dark. When I asked Karsai about these spots during our conversations in the studio, he said they were “pieces of evidence”. “I like to see that a work was really made with one’s own hands. It is good to see that this used to be an empty canvas on which a picture was constructed. It is important to remember the white canvas that I actually smear and soil when I ‘inhabit’ it during the painting process. It reminds me to handle it with care, though one should not be excessively careful.”in: FlashArtHungary 2013

If You See a GuyStanding In Front of a Metal BoxThat Does Not Mean AnythingElse Than a Guy Standing In Front of a Metal Box

extra

The  anima)on  video  for   the  track  Smother   in  fog  a4ributed  to  Bori  Péterfy   &  Love  Band  was  made  by   special  watercolour   technics.   The   paperboard  got  a  ground  coat  of  acrylic  paint  on  which  I  have  put   other   layers   with   watercolour.   This   la4er  surface  is  easily  removable,  therefore  what  I  paint  above  the  acryl  is  transformable.  We  have  made  snapshots  of  each  of  these  transforam)ons  with  a  digital   camera.On   the   very   first   picture   of   the  video  you  see  a  guy   around  whom  the  his  whole  surrounding  is  just  geHng  formulated  step  by  step  (the   tree,   grass   or   pavement),   all   happening   in  synchron   with   the   rhythm   of   the   music.   The  background  stretches  the  full  size  of  the  image,   in  front  of  which  the    figure     is  composed  to  stand  in  the   middle.   The   background   is   ar)culated   with  wide,   horizontal   brush-­‐work.The   deeds   of   the  main   character   and   the   processes  he   undergoes  are  in   harmony   with   the  lyrics  plus     reflects  the  musical  happenings.  The  text  of  the  song  is  about  a  break-­‐up,  and  about  the  seclusion  that  denies  to  think   twice  about   the  decision  to   give  an  end  to  the   love  story.   Each   scenes  in  the  anima)on  are  episodes  that   drama)ze  and  visually   express  this  process   and   its   effects.     Just   to   give   some  example..The   line   “don’t   bother   to   turn   to   me  whatever   you  have,   there  are   just   the  four  walls  listening   to   you”   appears   in   my   video   quite  concretely,   when   the   character   simultaneously  start  to  cry  and  vomit.  This  reflects  to  the  possibly  outspoken   but   vain   expressions   that   fills   up  emo)onally,  for  its  visual  transcrip)on  I  have  used  a  concete  pedestal  constructed  by   the   tears  and  vomit  referring  to  the  four  walls  in  the  lyrics.  AWer,  the  main  character   trows  away   a  spherical  object  that  a4racts  the  viewer’s  a4en)on  to  the  leW  part  of   the  image  at   the  very   moment  when  it   comes  “or  simply  smother  in  fog”.  

Smother in Fog or a Dead End of a Wannabe Love Story (Track 06 on Péterfy Bory&Love Band’s latest White Night album)

The  cloud  exploding  at  his  head  fills  up  gradually  the  whole   pictural   space.There   come   the   mountains  then,  emerging  smoothly  from  the  dark  background,  appearing  amongst   the  fog  that  enriches  while  the  music   reaches   its   peak.   Tiny   colourful   spots   are  moving,   varying   and   flickering   un)l   they   get  darkened,  and  finally  full  black.  The  melody   reaches  its  zenith,  most  of  the  instrumental  elements  step  in  at  this  point   in  the  music.  AWerwards  the  fog  alters  into  a  black  dollop  in  which  some  coulourful  spots  s)ll   keep   on   gli4ering,   but   the   dollop   covers   up  all.From   the   so   forming   dark   surface   a   figure   is  constructed   again.   He   stands   straddle-­‐legged   and  bows  the  head.  His  bowing  is  con)nuous  un)l  a  new  character   comes  out   from   his  back   that   takes  the  place  of  the  former  one,  now  he  takes  the  posi)on  of  the  upper  body.  This  refigura)on  keeps  on  going  un)l  a  dog  or  a  horse-­‐like  figure  appears  and  takes  the  place  of   the  upper  body.   The  last   verse  of  the  song  speaks  about  “if  it  were  only  you  and  me  on  an  island  in  the  middle  of  the  ocean,   I  would  not  love  you  neither”,  that  give  unexpected,  firm  closure  to  all.  The  last  character  cracks  up  and  falls  down,  only  the  lower  part   of  the  body   stays  on  the  image.The  newer  and  newer  appearances  shows  up  the  vanity  of  changing  the  disguises,  the  “I  would  not  love  you  neither”  that  we  hear  out  from  the  song,  closes  the  possibili)es.

& Album

edited by Szilvi Német ©2013