The work of the artist duo Katalin Kortmann-Járay and Karina Mendreczky explores the impact of culture and current environmental factors on human perception. Through an animist approach rooted in ecological crisis and increasingly coming to the fore recently, they create their stories through landscapes and accessible settings that interweave the symbolism of fairy tales, memory, quasi-religious motifs and mysticism.
Kortmann-Járay and Mendreczky have been working closely together since 2019. They create large-scale, accessible installations from a spatial collage of different elements. In their collaborative works, they combine different techniques and materials to create metaphorically feminine spaces. Their first exhibition at the MQ Wien Salon, curated by Verena Kaspar Eisert, was a major show in 2023, and the duo won the Esterházy Art Award in the same year.
Achievements
2023
Esterházy Art Award, Ludwig Scholarship, Budapest, HU
Visegrad Fund at SOPA Gallery, SL
Budapest Gallery Artists Exchange Programme, Krems, AU
Priority projects
2023
Installation at the Esterházy Art Award exhibiton, curated: Vitus Weh, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, HU
Oasis, Q21 Salon, curated: Verena Kaspar-Eisert, Vienna, AT
2022
Buzz, Studio Gallery/SYAA, Budapest, HU
People Look Like Flowers at Last, Parallel Vienna 2022, Vienna, AT
Publications
https://kultura.hu/magyar-kepzomuveszek-tarlata-becs-uj-kiallitotereben/