Nyíri Orsi: "Ami nélkül nem az"

"The Művház's latest exhibition presents some of the painterly visions of Orsolya Nyíri, a recent graduate and one of the most talented artists of the young generation. The compositions of the paintings created especially for this exhibition are thematically inspired by the "indispensable condition", more precisely by bipolar situations where one quality, personality trait or characteristic cannot exist without the other. Among the double poles, we can here associate 𝑗𝑜́ and 𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑧, 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑦𝑎𝑙𝑖 and 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑖, 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎́𝑙𝑡 and 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎́𝑙𝑡, as well as 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑒́𝑚 and 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑧𝑎𝑓𝑜𝑔𝑜𝑡𝑡. Nyíri has a penchant for working on a grandiose scale, and his 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝐼 𝑎𝑚, 𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑤𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝑜ℎ 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡? a moving canvas painting, the faceless, intertwining figures (angelic and demonic) of the moving canvas can be seen coming to life in the interior of a room. In a picture space that is both distant and intimate for its size, the painter has hidden in the swirl of pulsating colours and fluid, intertwining bodies, however, countless small objects, film motifs and art historical references that are waiting to be discovered. The vast composition is indirectly inspired by two prefaces, a film reference and an art historical reference, one of which is the most controversial body horror feature film in the 2024 Cannes Competition programme, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑏𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒, the other is a painting by the Dutch painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema from 1888 𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑔𝑎𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑠 𝑟𝑜𝑜́𝑧𝑠𝑎́𝑖 (𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑔𝑎𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑠). The two works had a great influence on Nyíri both thematically and compositionally. Smaller-scale paintings, such as the "linked" 𝐼 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑦𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 and 𝐴 𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑚𝑜𝑘𝑒 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡, are on display in the exhibition space, stretched canvases, the painter concentrated more on the portrait-like elaboration of faceless characters. "