ÁDÁM KOKESCH

born in Budapest, 1973
lives and works in Budapest

Once you encounter Ádám Kokesch’s works, you will always remain their prisoner, as they create a sort of aesthetic trap. Rather than mere paintings on a wall, his works are surfaces, shapes, and discs composed of colours, which can be fixed in space ad libitum and even adjusted with the help of a “hinge”.
They are hybrid creations, real entities that combine simultaneously the appeal of paintings and of technical objects; as a result of their very specific presence, they seem to look back – staring almost at us – thus defining the space they occupy. They ask questions about what defines – what is – a work of art and what are the expectations of viewers on this. Why can a painting “only” hang on a wall?
Kokesch’s works play not only with the great traditions of abstract art [Mondrian, Malevich, Colour Field or Shaped Canvas], but also with means of conveying information and the visual rhetoric of pictograms. He builds his repertoire of forms based on a database, creating a synthesis between scientific thoroughness and subjective freedom and autocracy. The “acrylic” pictures painted on “plexiglass” are reversed glass paintings of sorts giving the impression of modern traffic signs or reminding us of surveillance cameras, while, placed horizontally, they could even be seen as modern-style trays. The precise geometrical segmentation of planes, the full-coloured, smooth-surfaced patterns and ornaments could be product samples of a new, mysterious material. And we may ask: what do these represent?
Kokesch does not limit his exploration and analitic questioning to the tradition of painting ad image/picture-making alone he also queries other genres and media. He approaches every genre, technique and medium with the same attitude of experimental probing and curiosity that questions well-established habits.

Annie-Marie Bonnet

EXHIBITIONS

BIOGRAPHY

STUDIES AND RESIDENCIES

2018 –

Futura AIR, Prague

2012 –

Banska st a nica, Banska Stiavnica

2011 –

Futura AIR, Triangle Studios, New York

2009 –

AIR, Novia, Nykarleby

2007 –

Artists in Residence Laboratory, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw

2005 – 2008

Gyula Derkovits Scholarship

1998 –

Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts

1998 –

Member of Studio of Young Artists' Association

1994 – 2003

University of Fine Arts, Budapest

AWARDS AND GRANTS

2015 –

Nomination for Leopold Bloom Art Award

2009 –

Nomination for Aviva Art Award

2007 –

Studio Prize (SYAA)

2006 –

Strabag Art Award

2003 –

Klára Herczeg Prize

2022 – 2022

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020

Root, Kisterem, Budapest

2018

Palm House, Karlín Studios, Prague

2016

White Flag, Kisterem, Budapest

2015

BACKUP, Kassák Museum, Budapest
SAM, Selectedartmodels, Cologne
Lark Theory, Parthenón-fríz terem, MKE, Budapest

2013

POD, Kisterem, Budapest
Vous Ete Ici, Amsterdam

2012

Kisterem, Budapest
Platform, Óbudai Társaskör Gallery, Budapest

2010

Tanya Rumpf Project, Haarlem
Paks Picture Gallery, Paks

2009

Kisterem, Budapest

2008

Sudo kino, Dorottya Gallery, Budapest

2004

Possession, Exhibition space, W139, Amszterdam

2003

Possession, Studio (FKSE) Gallery, Budapest

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021

Universum – SEFO 2021 Triennial, Olomouc Museum of Art, Olomouc
Sketch, Kisterem, Budapest

2020

Finally We Can Learn Something, Kincsem Palace (organised by Kisterem), Budapest

2019

Szene Ungarn, Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch
Orient2, Kunsthalle Bratislava
Listing VIII., Kisterem
Bauhaus100. Programme for the now – Contemporary Viewpoints, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest

2018

Scale, Új Budapest Galéria, Budapest
Orient. “The New East” in Central Eastern European Art, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, Krakow
Orient, Bozar, Brussels
Orient, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga

2017

Found Geometry, Vasarely Múzeum, Budapest
People Players, OFF-Biennale, Budapest
PostContemporary, Telep Gallery, Budapest
Listing VI., Kisterem, Budapest
Abstract Hungary, Künstlerhaus, Graz

2015

Pure Light, Vasarely Múzeum, Budapest
Leopold Bloom Art Award, New Budapest Gallery, Budapest
Post Contemporary, Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapest
Izolátor, OFF-Biennale, Budapest

2014

Painting and Beyond, Kunstgalerie, Bonn
The Most, The FKSE’s Traditional Annual Exhibition
BoogieWoogie, Trafó Galéria, Budapest
Abstrakt Variációk, Trapéz Galéria, Budapest

2013

13th Istanbul Biennial
Fantastic Stuff, Kisterem Galéria, Budapest
Blind Date, Kunstgalerie, Bonn
Köztes Terek, Vasarely Múzeum, Budapest
Impossibility vs. Self-Censorship, Matadero, Madrid

2012

Haunting Monumentality, Gallery Plan-B, Berlin
Listing, Kisterem, Budapest
KROKUS Gallery, Bratislava
Másodfokú Egyenletek, Kepes Intézet, Eger
27 Countries – 27 Artists, Museum Tongerlohuys, Roosendaal

2011

Joy and Disaster, Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow
Joy and Disaster, S.M.A.K., Gent
Speak for Itself, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Outpost, Trafó Gallery, Budapest
Social Bazaar, Studio Gallery, Budapest

2010

donumenta 2010, Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg
Unmistakable Sentences. The Collection Revisited, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Science of the imagination, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
szimpla..dupla…, Künstlerhaus Dortmund

2009

Aviva Prize, Kunsthalle, Budapest
Pixel’s, Ernst Museum, Budapest

2008

Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. Kunsthalle, Budapest
Constructive-Concrete Wanted, Vasarely Museum, Budapest
Mechanic of Canvas, Ernst Museum, Budapest
Reloaded, Studio Gallery, Budapest

2007

Living Colour, Vasarely Museum, Budapest
Strabag prize 2006, Ludwig Museum, Budapest

2006

Points of view, Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana
Private Matter?, Kunsthalle, Budapest
The 1st QUADRILATERAL BIENNIAL, Relativity,
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka

2005

Reading in Absence, Trafó, Budapest
Travelling without moving, W139, Post CS, Amsterdam
Wedding, KLUBvh, ICA-D, Dunaújváros

2004

INTERKOSMOS, Raster Gallery, Warsaw
Cream, MEO, Budapest

2003

DEMO, ICA-D, Dunaújváros
One minute for one picture, ICA-D, Dunaújváros

2002

Zweite Welt, Kunstallianz, Berlin
Artwork of the week, Little Warsaw, Budapest
Impossible, P60, Artpool, Budapest
Paks Picture Gallery, Paks

2000

Man and Technic, Platán Gallery, Budapest

WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Ludwig Múzeum – Kortárs Művészeti Múzeum, Budapest
Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest
Paksi Képtár, Paks

Videos

Publications

News