His style can be traced back to European Avant-Garde movements such as Cubism, Futurism and Surrealism. Keresztesi is combining these different artistic approaches with topics such as dreams, ecstasy, sin, death, passion or hallucinations. These surreal compositions are created by combining different techniques such as airbrush and masking in combination with traditional brush work. Although the paintings have a strong emphasis on the figurative, they cannot be categorized as photo-realistic.
Keresztesi’s paintings create enchanting alternative realities by drawing the viewer into unknown, yet strangely familiar, microcosms. The works collide 2D and 3D as a reflection of visuals absorbed in everyday life and brought together in a surreal landscape. Dreamlike and sometimes eerie, they connect digital images, Internet surfaces, cybernated realities, infomercials, pop and avant-garde culture in a stream of consciousness floating across the canvas.
WORDS BY THE AUTHOR / I always wanted to make paintings. Since I was a child, I was drawn to art history, especially the history of painting, so it was quite obvious when I was 18 years old to attend the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. I graduated from the Painting studio without any issues. My main aesthetic is based on modernism and the mixture of artistic and historical references. Surrealism had a deep impact on me, especially René Magritte and his object-centered visual language. Also important is my relationship to technology, which came from my engineer father, I guess.
BIO / Botond Keresztesi (1987* Marosvásárhely, RO) is a Romanian/Hungarian artist working in painting, drawing, and site-specific painting installations. Remixing references from Art History, popular culture, virtual space, and everyday life, his paintings crystalise into the fragmented realities of dream-like landscapes. Recent solo and group exhibitions have taken place at: Galerie Deroullion, Paris; Storage Capacité, Berlin; Damien & The Love Guru, Brussels; Kunstfort, Vijhuizen, NL; Future Gallery, Berlin; Artkartell Project Space, Budapest; Labor Gallery, Budapest; Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest; and Schloss, Olso. He’s planning an autumn painting exhibition in Prague in 2020.
1/ Never look back
2/ Pokemon hydra
3/ Sensual connections
4/ The last emperor
5/ The real face of things
6/ Ice age
7/ Monster truck
8/ Searching for some grass
9/ Mother of the internet
10/ Forbidden spring
11/ Silent nude
12/ The Scorpion
13/ Scorpion bride
Artwork / Botond Keresztesi
Photos / David Biro and Aron Weber
Interview / Markéta Kosinová
