“Funnily, I used to say that instead of Cubism, I represent the Cuteism movement.”
Childlike curiosity reigns in joyous cartoonish creatures.
Szabolcs Bozó’s fluid approach to painting and drawing encapsulates the freedom of youth with refreshing honesty. The energetic creatures morph between human, animal and friendly monster, often with multiple heads and limbs. The self-taught artist has a profoundly intuitive understanding of colour. Despite using single-colour blocks, each one is brimming with variations in texture and tonality: wide repetitive brushstrokes are set against brisk lines added with oil stick along with thick dollops of paint which shine lustrously as if freshly squeezed from the tube. When painting on canvas, Bozó...
Szabolcs Bozó’s fluid approach to painting and drawing encapsulates the freedom of youth with refreshing honesty. The energetic creatures morph between human, animal and friendly monster, often with multiple heads and limbs. The self-taught artist has a profoundly intuitive understanding of colour. Despite using single-colour blocks, each one is brimming with variations in texture and tonality: wide repetitive brushstrokes are set against brisk lines added with oil stick along with thick dollops of paint which shine lustrously as if freshly squeezed from the tube. When painting on canvas, Bozó works on the floor, meaning footprints and accidental smudges are left on the surface. These ‘imperfections’ are integral to his practice.
Bozó often creates site-specific works. In his 2021 solo show The Explorer, at London’s Carl Kostyál Gallery, one room included a full-wall seven panel painting of a red mouse. Playful and expressive, yet also with a strong sense of minimalism and negative space, the work interacts with its surroundings to invite us back to our child-selves where curiosity reigned. While Bozó is hesitant to make an intentional connection to his homeland, he includes archetypal characters from the animations of his childhood, nodding to Hungarian pop culture which intersects with a rich cultural history rooted in folklore. Full of mischief and glee, Bozó’s charming creatures proclaim the possibilities of an instinctive, almost automatic artistic technique.
Bio
Szabolcs Bozó was born in 1992 in Pécs, Hungary, and now lives and works in London, UK.
Career
In 2017 he began sharing a studio in London with fellow Hungarian artist Márton Nemes, who provided a wealth of artistic and personal encouragement at a critical point in Bozó's career.
Did you know?
He is captivated by the imperfections and accidents that occur in his practice, often leaving behind fingerprints as testament to intuition and process.
