Zsolt Bodoni’s working process is based on an analysis of the past that functions as a kind of archaeology. He sources information from documents, art history and music; his work both a means of understanding and a process of recreation through forging a new view of the past from the perspective of the present. Bodoni’s paintings are more like a performance, much as classical musicians re-visit musical scores. The starting point is the reworking of old masters. First Bodoni attempts to peer beneath the glaze of the “original”, searching for the skeleton underneath, then, from his own reproduction he invents new elements, or changes the proportions - a process which he describes as similar to the act of “hacking” - his role that of a virus that invades the unique masterpieces, this changing our reading of the past and redefining our understanding of originality.
Born in Élesd, Romania in 1975, Zsolt Bodoni received his MFA from the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, Hungary.
Selected solo shows include: The Shining Path (2015) and King Give Us Soldiers (2013), Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE; Remastered, Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy (2013); Gods and Mortals, Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2011); Foundries of Ideologies, Ana Cristea Gallery, New York, USA (2010); and Monuments at FA Projects, London, UK (2008).
He has been shown in several important group shows including: THE NUDE in the XX & XXI CENTURY , S|2 Gallery, London (2015); Turning Points, The Twentieth Century Through 1914, 1939, 1989 and 2004 , Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary (2014); Defaced , Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO (2014); This Side of Paradise , S|2 Gallery, London, UK (2014); Nightfall , Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic (2013), Nightfall , MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen, Hungary(2012); Prague Biennale 5, Prague, Czech Republic (2001, 2009); Leipzig Walkabout , Galerie Eigen + Art, Leipzig, Germany (2011); Uncertain Terrain , Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN (2010); Show Me a Hero , Calvert 22, London, UK (2009); 15 Hungarian and Romanian Painters , Plan B, Cluj, Romania (2008).
His work has been featured and reviewed in Art in America, Flash Art and The New York Times. In 2009 he was selected for the “Top 100 Emerging Artists” by Flash Art International. He lives and works in Budapest, Hungary.
