Combining watercolour techniques with animation and physical objects, Hungarian artist Klára Petra Szabó creates site-specific installations that show personalities in moments of introspection. A cupboard opens to a couple, a window to a walking girl, a keyhole to a woman in a kitchen, a confessional grill to a disturbed face.

Klára often uses thermo-paints, which become transparent with heat, and includes the internet and other electronic media in her projects. Her whole oeuvre, she believes, is characterised by a kind of cosy intimacy. Her choice of subject matter is exceedingly personal and her models are usually her close friends, relatives, acquaintances, or even herself.

She is most interested in the body: the “medium” that simultaneously talks about identity, social status and cultural situation. She frequently explores the relationship between personal identity and fashion in her art, and reveals her own body (and existence) as a meaningful object in her works in a self-examining manner.

Klára studied at the University of West-Hungary, Institute of Applied Arts in Sopron. In 2008, she spent a semester in Denmark with the Royal Danish Ministry of Education Scholarship. Since 2009, she has been represented by the Hungarian VILTIN Gallery in Budapest. Over the past few years, she has participated in several Artist in Residency Programs in Japan, England, South Korea, Estonia, Sweden and Austria.

“I’m still traveling lot,” she says. “It’s very important for me, it helps me to recharge and collect new inspiration. My base is still in Hungary, where I have my own studio. Sometimes the contrast is very huge, example between my small hometown and a big city like Seoul. I like to travel but I also need a silent place, like my home, where I can hide and focus only on my work.”

Links: Website (www.szaboklarapetra.com) 

Images used with permission.