As a proud Budapest native who strides along the majestic Danube day and night since little, I am full of praises when it comes to our historical sights and architecture, gastronomy and Hungarian hospitality. After leaving home for university years and early career building in the UK and China respectively, I have come home to witness some positive changes to the Contemporary Art scene in Budapest, but at a rather slow pace.
A number of contemporary art project spaces and small-scale galleries have opened their doors in recent years including Chimera Project, Horizont Gallery and the more internationally recognised Hidegszoba (Coldroom) Studio. Unlike the more established Hungarian contemporary art galleries, namely Deák Erika Gallery and acb gallery who focus on Hungarian artists, the recently opened contemporary art spaces focus on young and emerging Hungarian and international artists. Not to mention a driving force in the contemporary art scene the Art Quarter Budapest (aqb), an international contemporary art center which features a residency programme, large exhibition space and numerous art events for locals and visitors.
During my recent short visit back in Budapest (I am mostly in Berlin nowadays), I checked some new spaces and spoke to some artists, a gallerist and a newly appointed curator to an important institution. I visited Faur Zsófi Gallery with an artist friend who is represented by the gallery and a nearby gallery, namely Három Hét (aka. three seven 37 gallery) Gallery who represents emerging and established Hungarian and international artists who mostly focus on geometric art (37 also represents Dóra Maurer). Yes, we have a long tradition of geometric abstract art and it remains a popular genre among contemporary Hungarian artists. During my meetings with the Budapest art crowd, we talked about the funding issues and gossiped about the Orbán and his party intervention in the art scene. Even though there is an overall pessimism -a general attribute to Hungarians- but we can all sense positivity as there are more young Hungarians and international art practitioners start to pay attention to Hungarian art scene. Here is a recent article published on artnet about Hungarian artists. Csak így tovább (Just carry on like this)!
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