Blue Marble, the title of Gábor Pintér’s exhibition, is inspired by a yet-to-be-realized installation.
The concept centers around a dishwasher filled with unwashed plates, evoking and extending the scenes depicted in his paintings. On top of the imagined dishwasher sits a slab of blue marble—not a real material, but a fictional design element—which lends a strangely elegant and comforting presence to the domestic setting. According to the original plan, the paintings in this exhibition were to encircle this installation, creating a visual and conceptual loop between the sculptural and the pictorial.
The paintings are structured around dualities. Each work plays with human recognition and perception. What initially appears abstract gradually reveals a figurative composition, encouraging the viewer to shift between visual modes. Seemingly ordinary, everyday scenes begin to tilt toward the transcendental through subtle compositional disruptions. This delicate balance between the familiar and the transcendent is a hallmark of Pintér’s approach.
Gábor Pintér, born in 1983 in Budapest, is a contemporary Hungarian painter known for his vivid, collage- like compositions that blur the lines between realism, abstraction, and symbolic imagery. He studied at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, where he developed a distinctive visual language that merges gestural oil painting with conceptual precision and a strong sense of visual irony and play.
In recent years, Pintér has incorporated large-scale chalk murals into his exhibitions, drawing directly onto gallery walls in conversation with his canvases. These ephemeral wall drawings deepen his investigation into time, surface, and spatial experience, expanding his practice beyond traditional painting into immersive installation.
Pintér received the Ludwig Prize in 2007 and has exhibited widely in Hungary and abroad. His recent solo shows include exhibitions at Mega Foundation in Stockholm and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Dunaújváros. He has participated in international group exhibitions at Albert van Abbehuis in Eindhoven, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Košice Cultural Centre, and UGM in Maribor. His work is held in major public collections including the Hungarian National Gallery and the Ludwig Museum Budapest.
In Blue Marble, Pintér continues to explore how ordinary moments and materials can be reassembled into poetic visual environments. His work invites viewers to slow down, reconsider what they think they see, and find meaning in subtle shifts between the everyday and the imaginary.
–Péter Bencze
