MÁRTON NEMES | Ghosting Love

Márton Nemes‘s paintings are characterised by their distinctive aesthetic combining vibrantly expressive saturated colourways, playful interventions within the pictorial structure and materials and architectural inspiration drawn from the built environment. His work explores themes related to the increasingly fragmented nature of modern life as lived in today’s urban metropolises. 

Initially inspired by the architecture of Budapest, the city where he grew up, Nemes’s practice began with the colourful abstraction of buildings.  Following on from this early work, and his subsequent relocation to London, Nemes’s work became heavily influenced by techno subcultures, as he continued to create abstracted colourful works influenced by the atmosphere and experience of rave culture, as expressed through creating, disintegrating and rearranging the pictorial state.  His latest works reference sociological phenomena, such as FOMO (fear of missing out) or ghosting, and reflect the more general malaise increasing urbanisation has fostered on the denizens of large cities, as populations become more individualistic and socialise more via web-based apps, and in so doing, lose traditional forms of community and support, such as immediate and extended family.

Nemes was born in 1986 in Székesfehérvár, Hungary.  He received an M.F.A. from Chelsea College of Arts, London in 2018, the city in which he continues to live and work.  Annka Kultys Gallery has represented the artist since 2019.  Ghosting Love, which opened in October 2019, was Nemes’s first solo exhibition at the gallery and his first solo showing in London, although he previously contributed to CACOTOPIA 03 (2018), a group exhibition at the gallery and the artist’s London debut. 

Nemes’s work was included in the group exhibition Abstract Hungary at Halle für Kunst & Medien in Graz, Austria (2017), accompanied by publication of the book of the same title by Sternberg Press.  2019 also saw the solo exhibition of the artist’s work in the show Tomorrow at the Holnap, Szent Istvan Kiraly Musuem, in Székesfehérvár, Hungary (2019). 

Nemes has been nominated for the Esterházy Art Award 2019, a prestigious prize for Hungarian contemporary artists.  The winners of the competition will be announced in December 2019 and their work featured at the Ludwig Museum, Budapest.