
MáRTA KUCSORA
MáRTA KUCSORA
Márta Kucsora’s large-scale abstract paintings explore the tension between movement and stillness, process and result, using a unique brushless technique that creates dynamic compositions through materials that interact unpredictably. Her works invite viewers into a meditative, visceral experience, transcending language and engaging both the senses and emotions. Through swirling colors and forms, Kucsora’s art reflects the constant change and mystery of existence, inviting reflection on one's place in the world and the existential questions that lie beyond intellectual understanding.
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Through her large canvases, Márta Kucsora lends a visual voice to the tension between the macro- and the microcosm, movement and stasis, process and result. By creating fluid visual realms whose poetic motion reflects on the constant change inherent in all things, she questions the positionality of the beholder who is challenged to situate themself in a constant conversation with the unraveling patterns of colour. It is abstraction in its most lyrical form, proceeding from nature as a realm of creation, a place of constant becoming in the wake of its inherent dynamics of change. An ambiguous, amorphous state of being, the artist lends a new visual language to through her unique technique of brushless painting. Using diverse materials that either attract or repel each other, her canvases turn into animated landscapes that reverberate and echo with a creative force from within the intriguing chromatic designs that emerge inadvertently. Pastes, lacquers and paints of varied density and viscosity perform a sublime dance upon their encounter on the canvas, thereby entering an impassioned struggle that ultimately results in compositions of rhythmic depth. The colour pigments condense and crystallise into animated formations as the artist sprays and sprinkles the more or less diluted materials onto the completely dry or partly moist support for her paintings. In pioneering this process, Márta Kucsora strikes a delicate balance between chance and control, ultimately embracing a gesture of self-abandonment in the expressive moment of matter taking over and choosing its own viable part. Active, conscious planning and preparation thus ultimately yield to the force of the uncontrolled which lends the compositions their remarkably autonomous nature. In her practice often compared to Jackson Pollock‘s action, Helen Frankenthaler‘s fluidity as well as Gerhard Richter‘s spatiality, Márta Kucsora yet pushes the boundaries of abstraction in a new direction as the physical laws of surface tension along with the thrust of centripetal and centrifugal forces are harnessed in a hitherto unique way.The intricate swathes of colour, by this, turn into suggestive compositions that challenge the viewer to submit to a meditative state while allowing for the mind to retreat to a place where sensation assumes the amorphous shape of visceral emotion.Inadvertently, held between the infinite of the macro- and the microcosm, the existential questions of human life surface - questions that in themselves have no definite form nor answer for inherently intangible, immaterial, untranslatable. It is here that the numinous arises as an experience which begins where the cognitively controlling mind ceases to operate. By demanding the viewer to place themselves in front of the canvas, Márta Kucsora‘s works induce a reflection on the position of the self in the world while contemplation becomes an act of setting the self in relation to colour, movement, energy, chance and control. In short, life and human existence at large.Her paintings unfold as a site of poetic projection, a poetic realm beyond the rigid regime of the verbal as always confined to meaning systems of semantic conventions with their inherent logics that prove both limiting and limited. The compositions accordingly move beyond language as they originate in an abstract space where the ordering thought submits to and translates into a visual choreography of colour. Through her unique technique, Márta Kucsora pushes the boundaries of abstraction as well as its lyrical declension. The process of painting is upended and reversed, no longer proving to be solely about the creating self but rather turning into a universal truth which the artist captures on her canvas. The swirling patterns become evocative of a primordial force whose origin lies at the heart of the audacious act of inner projection in recognition of the mystery of creation. A constant coming-into-being, proceeding from nothing to fill a latent void so fittingly represented by the blank canvas. The act of painting, its primary aspiration to image-making moves beyond the mere process of projecting pictorial arrangements. Rather, it emerges as an existential quest, an attempt at finding a metaphorical language whose amorphous nature allows for thought to materialise. In abstraction, the deepest questions we ask ourselves are thought and addressed through a gesture that erupting from within is severed from the intellect. Ideas, marked by their inherently immaterial essence, turn into a visual imprint that sparks off further associations. The initial moment is thereby predicated on the risk of not knowing what one does nor what the result will be. A risk whose proneness to failure at the same time reveals as its greatest strength for bringing about the unthought, the unmediated, the untamed. By this, the resulting painting reads as a living testament to an original struggle eternalised in the subliminal, supraverbal outcome. Across the expansive surface of Márta Kucsora‘s canvases, exuberant swathes of colour twist and turn, writhe and skate, float and fall, creating works of intriguing compositional balance and dynamic force. Jewel-like specks of radiant hues recall the variability and ferocity of the natural world in its opposed dimensions of the micro and the macro, thereby marking a passage from the inner to the outer and vice versa. Her canvases read as lyrical landscapes, unrestrained by the computing mind, where a sensory engagement with the painting forecloses a cognitive apprehension in favour of an endlessly engrossing and expanding visual experience. In a breathtaking union of vital force and visual lyricism, the compositions swivel between anarchy and restraint, chaos and order, accident and intention as the patterns leap, surge and whirl across the canvas. The resulting creations no longer teeter on the threshold of figuration but veer towards an expressive vigour that reverberates with its own evocative force. Of melodious intrigue, the swirls and swathes of paint seem to increase and decrease in volume as they swell and abate across the canvas, thereby echoing with asynaesthetic rhythm through the beholder who rather than a mere spectator experiences further perceptual modes beyond the merely visual. Unrestrained in their orchestrated cadence, Márta Kucsora‘s works live by a raw, kinetic energy. By this, they appear to be constantly evolving, shifting, morphing freed from any methodical rein as they solely abide by their very own laws. Never meant to illustrate or represent, her works refer to nothing but themselves, recalling the moment of their creation in an actualisation through the embodied viewer who by virtue of their physicality becomes the extension of the dynamic flow and motion of the colours. A sensation that lingers on in the beholding subject - repercussions of a sublime primordial force that in Márta Kucsora‘s paintings becomes viscerally tangible.
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Galleries
Studio views
Images courtesy of the artist
Kahan Art Space Buda — Liminal Spaces
Solo Exhibition
20 September 2024 — 19 March 2025
Kahan Art Space Buda, Budapest, Hungary
Márta Kucsora’s Liminal Spaces is the opening exhibition of the Dr. Éva Kahán Foundation's new large-scale exhibition space, the Kahan Art Space Buda, in Budapest XI district Gyapot street 4. The building that houses the Kahan Art Space Buda is an emblematic work of Hungarian industrial architecture, renovated to meet the needs of today's world while preserving its original values. The Kahan Art Space Buda is the third art space of the Dr. Éva Kahán Foundation, alongside the Kahan Art Space Pest in Budapest VII district Nagy Diófa street and the Kahan Art Space Vienna in Vienna II district Große Sperlgasse.
The Liminal Spaces exhibition presents Márta Kucsora's boundary-pushing techniques, in which she transforms painting into an exploration of spatial and digital realms. The Kahan Art Space Buda's vast interior space allows Kucsora's paintings to be an immersive visual and spatial experience, where two-dimensional art is transformed into three-dimensional form. Kucsora's monumental canvases interact with architectural elements, engaging the viewer in a play of rhythms, textures and space. Embracing contemporary technology, Márta Kucsora combines her physical paintings with digital media in a symbiosis that deepens the spatial narrative. The exhibition captures the evolution of Márta Kucsora's creative process, where performative painting techniques embody micro- and macro-universes, reflecting the complex interplay of time and space in art. Kucsora invites viewers to engage with art in a multidimensional way, challenging and inspiring them with her bold vision.
According to curator Viola Lukács, Márta emerges as a pivotal force in contemporary abstract painting in Eastern Europe. Her creations defy the limitations of traditional forms, navigating the medium with an adventurous spirit. Within the confines of a historic hangar, her monumental canvases transform spatial experience into a dialogue that engages the senses, inviting us to pause and reflect. (Her digital videos deepen this exchange, dissolving the barriers of time and perception, and guiding us into a meditative current. In this distinct, instinctual space, we shed our roles as mere spectators and become active participants in a narrative where abstraction mingles with profound encounters.)
Text by: Dr. Éva Kahán Foundation
©Réka Hegyháti
CoBrA Gallery — Never Step Into the Same River Twice
Solo Exhibition
8 November 2024 — 21 February 2025
CoBrA Gallery, Shanghai, China
Cobra Gallery is honored to announce the solo exhibition of Hungarian artist Márta Kucsora, opening on November 8, 2024. Titled Never Step into the Same River Twice, this will mark the artist’s first solo exhibition in Greater China. The exhibition will feature a selection of works from the past decade, offering a glimpse into the evolution of Márta Kucsora's creative journey.
"One cannot step into the same river twice." According to the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, change is the fundamental law of the universe. Nothing in the world remains constant; everything is in a state of continuous transformation and flow. Through the works of Márta Kucsora presented in this exhibition, we can glimpse a renewed understanding of the ever-changing nature of all things from the artist's perspective.
Márta Kucsora pays close attention to the processes of development in nature and the creation of new forms. Her works often stem from a reimagined depiction of these landscapes as they are perceived in her mind. By blending and layering different pigments, she maximizes the exploration of the unknown outcomes that arise from the physical properties of paint. Using painting as an entry point, she leads both herself and the viewer into an uncharted realm. Kucsora’s paintings are full of dynamism and vitality, constantly exploring the interplay between flow and resistance in nature through the forces of the natural world.
Text by: CoBrA Gallery
©CoBrA Gallery
Patricia Low Contemporary — Less Orderly Ways
Solo Exhibition
23 November 2024 — 25 January 2025
Patricia Low Contemporary, Venice, Italy
Patricia Low is delighted to present an exhibition of new and recent paintings by Hungarian artist Márta Kucsora. Less Orderly Ways marks the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and her first at Patricia Low Venezia. United by their particular hue, or light palette, the works on view date from 2021 to 2024. Forms reminiscent of twisting vines, cellular matrices, and lava-like formations in greens, blues, pinks and gold occupy the canvases, each one alive with a sense of movement. Kucsora‘s richly layered abstractions, with their various splashes, flourishes, and calligraphic lines, invite active contemplation from the viewer and speak to the abundantly ornamented identity of Venice itself. A continuation of Kucsora‘s investigation into living processes, the works on show are all created by means of a fluid experimentation with water-based, organic chemicals poured on large-scale linen canvases in an afternoon’s brushless, choreographed performance. The results of this finely calibrated, yet also adventitious, dance of pigments, activators and retarders, are surfaces composed of layers of thin paint whose forms variously evoke biological structures or cosmological phenomena. A collaboration between the conscious and the unconscious, between the premeditated and the uncalculated, Kucsora‘s liquid ecologies constitute a kind of alchemy mediated by the relationship between artist and material.
Text by: Patricia Low Contemporary
©Patricia Low Contemporary
Bunker West Berlin — Liquid Obsession
Solo Exhibition
Opening 11 September 2025
curated by Viola Lukács
Bunker West Berlin, Germany
The artist's profound explorations of liquid ecologies inspire a dynamic dialogue between viewers and nature itself. Márta Kucsora employs different fluids and bodies of water as the foundational elements of her practice, transforming them into compelling liquid ecologies. Her large-scale canvases, rich with layered complexity, invite viewers to navigate a world where artistic expression meets the volatile interplay of natural forces.
The exhibition explores themes shared in Viola Lukács’s piece, "In Conversation with Márta Kucsora: State of Convergence."
In this insightful dialogue, Kucsora reveals the intricacies of her journey from her Hungarian roots to the international art scene, articulating how her practice delves into the physicality of space and the fluidity of abstraction to mirror complex concepts like quantum physics. Kucsora's works are a testament to her intuitive bond with the natural world. Each piece reflects a non-linear narrative that challenges and redefines spatial and visual coherence. In a world characterized by transformation and uncertainty, Kucsora's work resonates with Uygmunt Baumann concept of liquid
modernity, portraying the fluidity and fragmentation of contemporary society. Each painting becomes a visual inquiry into the themesof individualization, globalization, and mutable identities, inviting introspection and dialogue.
Text by: Bunker West Berlin
©Julia Klotz
Galerie Melbye Konan — Monumentalis
Solo Exhibition
15 April — 30 June 2023
Bunker West Berlin, Germany
Hailing from Hungary, Márta Kucsora's artwork has been showcased in prestigious museums and can be found in renowned private and public collections worldwide. With solo exhibitions in renowned institutions such as the Kunsthalle Budapest and the Kepes Institute and countries like the USA, China and Belgium, she has firmly established herself as a leading figure in the art world.
Kucsora's art is a reflection of the artist herself, a deep and complex exploration of the human condition and the world around us. Her use of vibrant colors, bold lines, and abstract shapes creates a sense of movement and energy that draws the viewer in and invites them to explore the layers of meaning within each piece. Her art is expressive, almost poetic abstraction, characterized by special coloring and immense movement.
Viewers will find roots of abstract expressionism in Kucsora's work, which has been heavily influenced by 20th century U.S. artists Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Márta Kucsora studied in New Jersey and in Budapest.
In her artistic creative process, the Hungarian treads scientific-experimental paths: she experiments with novel color formulas, deals with the chemical and physical properties of her paint, uses them for her work. It is not unusual to see the artist wearing a gas mask during her work. Because of the intensity of the process, the artist can spend up to two years working on a single piece.
Kucsora is an artist who gets to the heart of the aesthetic investment that abstraction can offer. With her paintings she wants to bring back moments that have faded in our dull and corroded lives. Her works are meant to help us activate our sensual experiences and expand the possibilities of our creative imagination. Ultimately, they will restore the lost splendour of nature, essential for a balanced life.
Text by: Galerie Melbye-Konan
©Galerie Melbye-Konan
Kepes Institute — Stretch
Solo Exhibition
14 December 2022 — 14 March 2023
Kepes Institute, Eger, Hungary
The solo exhibition of Márta Kucsora at the Kepes Institute in Eger is the second monographic overview of her paintings in a major Hungarian museum.
The Hungarian painter’s distinctive pieces are characterized by her use of radical possibilities of abstract-lyrical form-building. The materiality of the surfaces applied with paint gives Kucsora’s works their subject matter. Emotionally animated, energetic, and passionate, the vast, often larger-than-life dimensions of her canvases push the boundaries of the spatial expanse of the medium. Kucsora’s compositions recall the abstract expressionist heroic feminist artists who worked as sensitive seismographs of society, such as Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner, and Perle Fine, all captured the unfathomable depths of the environment with a liberating vitality. Similarly to contemporary painters exploring the vast possibilities of the physical dimension of the paint that possess a psychologically encoded depth, such as Julie Mehretu or Katharina Grosse, Kucsora’s canvases invoke the richness and complexity of human emotions, while also revealing the rhythm of the interrupted and uninterrupted processes of the universe and the entropy—the state of disorder—of nature.
The core of the exhibition at the Kepes Institute serves three recent monumental paintings by Márta Kucsora, which fill the central, representative room of the contemporary art museum like large-scale triptychs that are on the verge of stretching the boundaries of the exhibition space. In addition to the canvases, the show also includes a video installation that seeks to expand the traditional paraphernalia of painting. The latter work nuances the aesthetic experience of unrepeatable processes by creating a link between two seemingly contradictory forms of art experience, the immersive and the contemplative, through communication channels that correspond to the visual thinking of the present day.
Text by: Márton Orosz, Phd, Director of Vasarely Museum Budapest
©David Biró
Kunsthalle Budapest — INCEPTION, Though Shaping Material
Solo Exhibition
15 December 2021 — 13 February 2022
Kunsthalle Budapest, Hungary
Márta Kucsora is one of the internationally acclaimed figures of contemporary Hungarian painting. Her vibrant, experimental pictures explore the limits of abstraction. Her works exhibited in the Műcsarnok form a separate category within modern and contemporary visual representation merely based on their size and stand as examples of true monumental abstraction.
In the past two decades the art of Márta Kucsora has gradually shifted to expressive, at times even lyrical abstraction, especially to its version that finds its best expression in gestures and experimentation with materials. An ever more subtle quality in the perception and rendition of nature could already be observed in her works from the 2000s. First we can see the power of water in motion, the lashing of waves created through an unconventional splattering of paint, and then her Plantagram series takes us closer to the inner micro-level of the flora, where the conventional methods of human perception prove less and less effective.
The video installations made specifically for this exhibition uniquely illustrate the artist’s approach to the interplay of materials and physical forces; they can be viewed in a sanctuary-like dark room in the middle of the exhibition space. In there the perception of the external world disappears and the viewer’s mind is engaged solely by the meditative movement of the colours flowing and swirling above. The endless flow was made in Márta Kucsora’s studio and the screened footage is unaltered, without any computer-assisted graphic post-production. What we see in the videos is the same as that in the exhibited pictures: material driven by the laws of chemistry and physics, whose exact dimensions we cannot immediately comprehend. The sounds accompanying the footage are taken from nature but here too randomness is only an illusion. Márta Kucsora sets the vortex of colours in motion using her special technique and the natural process lasts exactly up to the point the artist allows it.
Text: Péter Antalffy
©Zsófia Nyirkos
Postmasters Gallery — Super Natural
Solo Exhibition
13 March 2021 — 1 May 2021
Postmasters Gallery, New York, USA
Postmasters Gallery is extremely pleased to announce a solo exhibition of paintings by Hungarian artist Marta Kucsora. “Super Natural” will be Kucsora’s first exhibition in New York and in the US. Presenting ten monumental works in both galleries, we introduce an artist at the peak of her unique, experimental, non figurative practice who is aware of the rich lineage of abstraction as she moves that very language forward into 2021.
Resonating across time with Pollock’s action, Frankenthaler’s fluidity, 1980’s Richter’s abstract spatiality, and contemporary gestural abstraction’s referentiality, Kucsora’s update of brushless action paintings invariably reflects the performative process of their making. With a Polke-like penchant for experimentation, Kucsora expands her materialist repertoire of painterly media in her chemical “kitchen.” And then she deploys her concoctions on a fearless scale. Her vision- filling paintings are at once spatially deep and canvas-flat, and they vibrate with the energy of embodied paradox: of control alongside chance operation, of rhythm and order amidst chaos. They offer the techno-feel of otherworldly-some would say interstellar–presence on a scale that entices viewers to project themselves into their pictorial fields with alluring abandon.
In a newly published monograph on Kucsora, Marton Orosz, Director of Vasarely Museum, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest writes:
“Kucsora’s works communicate a miniature metaphysical event, born of the tension of matter that is frozen in time and then liquefied in turn. They seem to be continuously rewriting themselves, evoking the surrealist technique of decalcomania, écriture automatique or the chemigrams that became popular in the 1950s in the field of subjectless photography. Reminiscent of thickening mulberry jam, colour pigments crystallize in certain spots into geological structures, or turn into lava flows, bearing the signs of physical processes that come into being via deliberate or random dialectic, as a result of a peculiar “trial and error” methodology. We find ourselves in an experimental lab, a kitchen with chemical concoctions. Kucsora is cooking up a secret recipe, mixing up paints of varied density and viscosity, painting mediums, pastes, lacquers and gelatins, spraying, sprinkling these more or less diluted materials onto the completely dry or moistened canvas. Her choice depends on whether she wants the final product to bear the marks of the operation of physical laws on surface tension, or instead, the depiction of the dominance of centripetal or centrifugal forces”.
Text: Postmasters Gallery
©Kyle Knodell