Artist: Daniel Bencs
Exhibition title: Meow Meow
Venue: Horizont Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
Date: February 15 – April 4, 2023
Photography: Dávid Biró / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Horizont Gallery, Budapest
The protagonist of the exhibition is a black cat about whom I made my first sketch five years ago down the street, during my travel in Spain. With the repetition of this simple motif across several paintings, my aim was its transfiguration, which can be observed, for example, during the continuous recitation of the same word. After a while, the original meaning disappears and only the abstract soundscape of the word remains. The accumulation of the same sounds creates a saturated atmosphere that suggests timelessness through its hypnotic effect. With my paintings, I want to bring eyesights into motion in the same way that fast monotonous music compels our head to nod unconsciously, which can easily develop into a dance later on. I consider rotations, continuous and recursive movements the sketches of the infinite. Turning these movements inward, we can approach sacred spheres. My images reflect a world full of joy to me, resembling how little children immerse themselves in play. At the same time, the cheerful color scheme also refers to the radical repetitions of mass production and pop culture, due to which the motif can become a symbol or a logo, drifting further and further away from the Spanish cat, the original archetype.
https://www.instagram.com/daniel.bencs/
Daniel Bencs was born in 1990, in Budapest. He studied image graphics at Óbuda Vocational School of Fine Arts (OXI – Óbudai Képzőművészeti Szakképző Iskola) between 2009 and 2011. In 2012, he was admitted to the painting department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, in the class of Zsigmond Károlyi and Zoltán Ötvös. After graduation he went on a long excursion to Southeast Asia, which had a significant impact on his painting. Since 2020, he has been a member of SKURC art association in Budapest, which organizes exhibitions and other artistic programs. From 2022 he is a student of the DLA Doctoral School of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts.
