Fényhajtogatás | Light folding by Valéria Sóváradi (HU)
December 2, 2023 – March 14, 2024
TOBE Cabinet | Budapest, Hungary
Valéria Sóváradi, a painter awarded the Munkácsy Prize, brings a unique visual language to contemporary Hungarian fine art. Throughout her methodical artistic journey, she has worked with various materials and explored the challenges of creating three-dimensional artworks. Over time, her heightened interest in spatiality became a central theme in her paintings, intricately intertwined with her color studies and distinctive, personal use of color.
Her evocative virtual spaces are transformed into paintings through a minimalist architectural framework and the light-creating power of her subtle hues, with modulation techniques playing a key role. These paintings are grounded in natural light, where the organic unity of color and light is strikingly evident, and her depiction of color reflections is nothing short of masterful. Remarkably, she achieves what is impossible in reality: folding light—not refraction, but a unique manipulation of light itself.
In this context, the third fundamental element, the plane and its system of layers, becomes central, giving rise to the extraordinary phenomenon of folded light. The resulting painting-space is not a labyrinth, yet its intricate structures and the interplay of layered light create a complex, inventive visual composition that captivates the viewer’s attention.
Through Valéria Sóváradi’s brush and tools, we embark on a visual exploration of unpretentious, seemingly uninhabited yet profoundly humane spaces—domains that are simultaneously rich in emotion and intellectual depth.
— Balázs Feledy, Art Writer
