Dániel Bernáth, born in 1990, is one of Hungary’s young generation of painters. He deals with the material and artistic aspects of the pictorial object and moves on the border between meticulous planning and emotional spontaneity. In his series “Y”, which is also the title of his solo exhibition at STRABAG Artlounge, the focus is on the “Y” not as a character but as a pictorial sign. In nature, forms become more complex as they grow and divide. An opposite development is reflected in the artist’s working method; he creates his compositions by splitting the whole.
The picture supports are industrially manufactured plywood panels that preserve the longitudinal sections of tree rings and thus bring the dimension of time into the picture. The depiction of time in nature, the rapid production of a plywood panel and the claim of a work of art to eternity meet in Bernáth’s paintings. The artist initially sketches his compositions digitally, transfers the forms to the taped wooden panels in an act of drawing and further develops his pictorial language with templates. He uses these several times and plays with the positive and negative representation of the same form. This creates dynamic pictorial worlds of geometric and organic abstract elements in radiant colours that invite us to appreciate the complexity of nature.
Rebeka Erdő