Old Shark | Fuchs Tamás's exhibition will be inaugurated by poet Erdős Virág
The exhibition explores the phenomenon of how, within an overwhelming flood of information far beyond our capacity to absorb, a handful of images become caught in our mental filter. Fragments of earlier memories cling to them, they become encapsulated in our minds, and gradually transform into mental pearls.
Recurring motifs in Fuchs Tamás's paintings include ships, the Moon, and the strange creatures of the deep sea. His visual world is at once quietly contemplative and charged with a sense of danger. Rather than telling specific stories, his paintings transform the icons of the media into a deeply personal universe.
Schedule
A lukewarm piece of news shuffling along in slippers can no longer cross our threshold of attention.
The media has filled every inch of the space available to it—our consumption of images has reached its theoretical maximum. What, then, still remains with us from the events of the world? And how do these fragments transform into memory?
The inspirations behind the exhibited works can be traced, but there is little point in doing so. Fuchs Tamás is not a visual chronicler of his age. The countless images encountered through a thousand different sources merely provide the ground layer of the canvas. What truly matters lies in the background—behind the curtain and beneath the skin.
On the water's surface, powerful motifs emerge. A yacht floating is striking enough in itself. But this one is also on fire. Is it the flambéed sugar crust of a Gundel pancake? The smoke suggests something less appetizing: the charred remains of nylon curtains and waxed canvas.
Another vessel lingers beneath a string of lights. Is it anchored in a blockaded southern strait, or waiting outside a harbour bloated with prosperity? One thing is certain: we have seen it in the news. Once an image has entered our minds, it cannot be unseen.
The central painting presents familiar faces sailing together on the Ganges in a familiar formation.
The celestial bodies that once guided sailors are connected to earthly existence through the pattern of an upholstery fabric. As above, so below.
The surface chatters; the deep sea remains silent. Below, creatures shaped by harsh conditions wait in the darkness.
The moray eel floating before the upholstery fabric is naked. It has no scales, and its skin secretes a toxic mucus. It is not a creature made to be stroked. It glances at us with curious eyes, perhaps even with a slight pout. Yet this expression conceals its true secret: the second set of jaws hidden behind its sensual lips—another mouth concealed within the first.
The old shark has a weathered face. It never blinks under our gaze. Nor does it blink when no one is watching. It is the universal media totem animal inherited from the twentieth century, having successfully crossed from the era of VHS tapes into the digital present. Fuchs Tamás now paints it onto traditional wooden panels with the squirrel-hair brushes of the past.
Enjoy the paintings, and explore the inner worlds they reveal.
The exhibition will be opened by poet Erdős Virág. Erdős Virág
Opening: 25 August 2026, 6:00 PM
Exhibition on view: 25 August – 25 September 2026, during the gallery's opening hours.
