Szabolcs Veres

b. 1983, Romanian

By Julien Delagrange

May 24, 2021

Biography

Szabolcs Veres is a contemporary painter living and working in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Veres is best known for his powerful paintings, collage-like compositions and expressionist impastos.

Born in 1983 in Satu Mare, Romania, one could state the oeuvre of Szablocs Veres is rooted within figure painting and traditional portraiture. Although the Romanian painter may use the decorum of both, at the same he also denies it. Veres frees his paintings from the aesthetic intention, often hovering between idealized figures and beauty versus reality and the grotesque.

Portrait of Szabolcs Veres in his studio. Photo: Christie’s.

The starting point for his paintings is a process based on collage, as the artist builds his image as with bricks. The structure from this collage is then used and transformed by his cheek for colour and virtuoso brushwork. Szabolcs Veres is one of the main representatives of the contemporary art scene in Cluj, Romania.

Szabolcs Veres received his MA at the University of Arts and Design in Cluj-Napoca in 2008, before achieving a Ph.D. in 2011 at the same University. The Romanian painter has had group shows at renowned institutions such as the Ernst Museum in Budapest, Hungary; the Mucsarnok Kunsthalle in Budapest, Hungary and the MODEM Center for Modern and Contemporary Art in Debrecen, Hungary. Veres features in multiple private collections and is also collected by the MAGMA Contemporary Art Space, Romania.

Artworks

Szabolcs Veres, Bedroom, 2016. Oil on canvas – 32.5 × 40 cm. Courtesy of Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York.

Szabolcs Veres, Herpes 13, 2014. Oil on canvas – 24 × 18 cm. Courtesy of Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York.

Szabolcs Veres, Untitled (Hyle 5), 2010. Oil on canvas – 200 × 120 cm. Courtesy of Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York.

Szabolcs Veres, Porthunt 19, 2010. Oil on canvas – 120 × 150 cm. Courtesy of Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York.

Szabolcs Veres, Untitled (Hyle 3), 2010. Oil on canvas – 200 × 145 cm. Courtesy of Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York.

Szabolcs Veres, Studies for a Hunt 9, 2008. Oil on canvas – 150 × 120 cm. Courtesy of Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York.

Julien Delagrange

Julien Delagrange (b. 1994, BE) is an art historian, contemporary artist, and the director of CAI and CAI Gallery. Previously, Delagrange has worked for the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels, the Jan Vercruysse Foundation, and the Ghent University Library. His artistic practice and written art criticism are strongly intertwined, examining contemporary art in search of new perspectives in the art world.

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