There are so many interesting artists working out of central Europe at the moment, and one that we have had our eye on for a few years is Hungarian painter, Ákos Ezer. During the month of November, Ezer is presenting a large body of work at the Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Presenting his personal take on traditional "social realist" painting, Closer Look provides an insight into the process and observations Ezer sees in his daily life. 

 

Approaching his work from an ironic standpoint, he is depicting his subjects often literally as "broken" by the impact of external factors, but also, their internal conditions. Through rich and well-balanced compositions, bold and heavily textured with brush gestures, Ezer constructs strong and timeless images of everyday people coping with their daily life. Often stretching the realistic painting aesthetics as far as to the "bad painting" concept reminiscent of Guston, Kippenberger, or Koether, the artist is capable of abstracting the scene while keeping the clarity of the image.

The more recent series of works features scenes in which the main characters are stumbling over and clumsily forming clusters of bodies and limbs. Utilizing his subjects as constructive elements, Ezer isn't afraid to exaggerate their features or break them into impossible postures in order to achieve the desired effect. Putting an obvious focus on skin tones, gradients that depict volume and fabric patterns, the imagery confidently pushes the stylistic barriers while providing numerous layers of reading. The exciting blend of styles and visuals included in a single piece is the direct result of the dialogue between the artist, his tools, and the canvas, as well as the abundance of visual resources he hones his inspiration from. —Sasha Bogojev