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Márta Czene
1982, Budapest
Márta Czene studied art history, painting, and inter-media art. Her primary medium is a distinctive form of painting-montage, through which she explores the relationship between static images and narrative, as well as various possible approaches to visual storytelling.
Her paintings feature scenes inspired by her own life, from specific film sources, or from imaginary stories. The images placed next to, below, or above one another are connected in an associative, intuitive way; the relationship between them is enigmatic and often full of tension due to their often fragmentary nature. A characteristic feature is a continuous change in scale; in her paintings space is not homogeneous, and time is not linear. Her montages of up to dozens of images can be interpreted as a visual stream of thought, in which reality and imagination merge.
She is particularly interested in the detailed, often photorealistic elaboration of the scene based on in-depth, precise observation. Her main sources of inspiration are different techniques of film-montage on the one hand and the static coolness and symbolism of medieval and Renaissance painting on the other.
Czene’s primary interests lie in existential and identity issues: the psychological perception of time, the interplay between illusion and reality, personal and collective traumas, and the distorted roles and self-images shaped by transgenerational patterns inherited from a multi-generational family of artists. Her art is distinctly characterized by a female perspective, frequently reflecting on her experiences as an Eastern European woman. More recently she has been expanding her practice to include other media such as photography, appropriated and found images, drawings, and ephemeral murals, incorporating them into her increasingly complex installations.
Márta Czene graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2007 and has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions. Her first solo exhibition at INDA Gallery, Parallel Cut (2008) marked the beginning of an ongoing relationship with the gallery, leading to several subsequent shows. Her most recent exhibition, This is Not My Body (2023) received significant acclaim and was shortlisted for the re-launched AICA (International Association of Art Critics) Award for Best Solo Exhibition in 2023.
