József Csató

Sean Horton (Presents) is pleased to present the New York solo debut of Hungarian painter József Csató — the exhibition is the first in a year-long series to be held at 515 West 20th Street, 3rd Floor in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.

In what has become his signature style, the paintings of József Csató are rooted in a practice that the artist refers to as “sketchbook mythologies.” Emerging from a sort of doodle’s paradise, the artist’s mostly biomorphic, yet personified, pencil drawings sometimes sprout from page to canvas where they join others to build a brave new world.

Calling his studio a “microcosm” where ideas “fertilize” others, the resulting paintings often establish a relationship between the natural and the human-made. And while the scenes are not overtly dystopian, there is the slightly sinister implication that we have just missed some sort of event or that we may be to blame for the interruption. In Calibrating Feelings (all works 2021), colorful stems and stalks are stuffed into pastel pottery-like containers that are hovering around a woodgrain-like surface with glowing eyes — one can’t help but think of that not-entirely-welcoming jangle of the shopkeeper’s bell that causes us to adjust to the sudden stillness of our local florist. “Just looking…” we say to alleviate the tension.

While Csató paints mostly intuitively, there is a sense of display or organization that brings to mind words like diorama, menagerie, or collection, however, the experience of these scenes is freely meandering. For example, Finally We Meet could easily be a fairy tale version of an afternoon walk through a sculpture garden or a natural history museum — one where the artist’s turquoise overpainting recedes to become a sky with heavy, colorful clouds and the bulbous Miró-like form is guarded by the weathered minerality of some sort of beast…maybe prehistoric, maybe friendly? In Butterfly Trap II, a scene is set, in dramatic form, for a bashful central character that is ever-so-slightly revealed through Wisteria-colored curtains, but on this occasion the artist’s employment of a bone-colored surface melds into the shape of a bell jar.

The artist’s affinity for dry pigments, matte surfaces, and pastel colors reveals a yearning for the past while his constant return to the sketchbook gives rise to an optimistic, unadulterated sense of imagination. To quote the artist: “I like to melt past and present together. I search to depict a world where our sufferings, anxieties, and everyday feelings can live together in a simple and sometimes funny way.”

József Csató (b. 1980, Mezökövesd, HU) lives and works in Budapest, HU. The artist attended the University of Fine Arts, Budapest, HU and the University of Fine Arts, Nürnberg, DE. He is a three-time recipient of the honorable Gyula Derkovits Scholarship, receiving the award from 2013-2015. In 2013, he also received the prominent Esterhazy Prize, a national award for Hungarian artists. His work has recently been featured in exhibitions at Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, AT and Deák Erika Gallery, Budapest, HU; upcoming exhibitions include: Plus One Gallery, Antwerp, BE and Double Q Gallery, HK. His work was recently acquired by the Ludwig Museum, Budapest, HU.