Zsófi Barabás és Jussi Niva | Offspace

opening

An abstract painter using unusual colours and textures, Barabás is a noted member of Hungary’s young generation of artists. This time she has invited to an artistic adventure Jussi Niva, an enfant terrible of contemporary Finnish art, to jointly experiment with limitless opportunities in spatiality and the use of materials. Both artists find pleasure in the variation of surfaces and confronting three-dimensional objects with finely painted shapes.

Literally speaking, OFFSPACE means alternative space but the way these two artists see it at this exhibition is reinterpreting spatial impressions and presenting them from new perspectives.

For years Zsófi Barabás has been an admirer of the Finnish artist’s paintings that thrust into the space. She thinks those three-dimensional works are marked by momentum and dynamism and yet they emanate stability and tranquillity. Those works aspire to transcend the restrictions of two dimensions. The objects of Jussi Niva interrupt and also extend the space that surround them. His works – which are meant to be on a wall – suggest depth. They are spatial paradoxes and, although their edges and folds are fractured and unpredictable, they are pointing at a definite direction.

The abstract paintings of Zsófi Barabás also radiate tranquillity, but they also offer for the viewer unpredictability and surprise. She makes their organic shapes unique by applying an extremely broad selection of colours and paint layers.

Jussi Niva was born in 1966. Upon graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts of Helsinki, Finland, he soon rose to the elite of contemporary Finnish artists. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Sweden, Norway, Japan, Germany, Estonia and Italy, just to mention a few venues. This is the first time his works are on display in Hungary.

Zsófi Barabás comes from a family of artists. After graduating from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest, she conducted postgraduate studies under the guidance of Ilona Keserü. She has also studied in Cambridge, UK, and Tokyo, Japan. Her portfolio includes, in addition to paintings, a series of books for children entitled: Everybody Can Draw, and several collaborative design projects.