The first joint exhibition of Hungarian artist, Árpád Forgó and Brussels-based
ceramic artist Abel Jallais takes place at the Front Gallery of Liszt Institute,
Brussels as an official off program of Art Brussels international contemporary
art fair.
At the exhibition, through unusual constellations, Forgó’s delicate shaped
canvas compositions get in dialogue with the monochrome ceramic objects of Abel
Jallais. Despite of working with different medium, their approach and processes
share several similarities. They create non-representational objects, which do
not intend to generate direct associations; the content of the work is its
colour, shape, texture, size and scale.
Both artists developed his own basic forms, from which they build the artworks:
Jallais is using additions, cut-outs and repetition in his “Bonbonne” series;
Forgó is applying different reflection methods, as well as shifting. They create
simple and visually controllable pieces that need to be observed and discovered.
Árpád Forgó works with basic geometric forms and through isometric
transformations; he builds shaped canvas compositions, visualising structures,
shapes, measurements and rhythm, as well as planar and spatial relationships. He
developed shaped canvas modules in order to build block-like or hollow,
symmetrical or asymmetrical compositions. In the recent years, he experiments
intensively with different compound painting processes in order to challenge the
viewer’s perception not only by the structure but also by the material.
Abel Jallais has an attraction to facing unknown objects; therefore, he peals
off the functional territories of the archaic objects and transforms them into a
free form of interpretation. They become a fictional territory again to explore,
offering the opportunity to the passive user to open a new dialogue with the
form. Sighing with the eyes, turning around, manipulating to return to a
primitive form of primitive apprehension. His practice moves in this interstice.
The fictional sense becomes the functional sense.
Both artists work with traditional materials, aiming for industrial perfection,
still keeping the craftsmanship of the process.
Árpád Forgó is a Budapest-based artist. After graduating, he soon started to
focus on geometric abstraction and made paintings with tactile feature. He has
always been interested in the periphery of painting and sculpture. Since 2015,
he creates shaped canvas works and modular compositions. He has exhibited
widely, including solos shows at Anya Tish Gallery in Houston; Schlieder
Contemporary in Frankfurt; Viltin Gallery, Budapest and Rómer Flóris Museum of
Art and History in Győr, Hungary. He has participated in group shows at Ludwig
Museum and Vasarely Museum in Budapest and the Museum Ritter in Waldenbuch,
Germany. Artist residency programs play an important role in the artist’s
career, he was invited to Norway, Australia, Spain, and several times to the
United States. For 2019-2020, he was awarded The Pollock-Krasner Foundation
grant.
Abel Jallais is a French-born ceramic artist living and working in Brussels.
After his studies at the College of Fine Arts in Angers, where he concentrated
on sculpture and drawing, he spent a year in Colombia, where he did an
internship at Campo de Gutierrez artist residency centre, where ceramics played
a major role. He had already been working with clay since his teenage years, and
this experience strengthened his desire to explore this material further. On his
return to Europe, he joined the master’s programme in ceramics at La Cambre
National College of Visual Arts in Brussels, graduating in 2018. Since then, he
has divided his time between his art practice at Espace Triphasé art studio and
his work as a teacher at the Brussels Art Academy and as a teaching assistant at
the ceramics department at La Cambre. His works have been exhibited at numerous
galleries and art spaces in Brussels, including Galerie Cohérent, Musée du
Cinquantenaire, Puls Ceramics Gallery and Espace La Vallée, as well as at
international ceramics platforms in Belgium, The Netherlands and France.
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Curator: Gábor Pintér
