József Csató
°1980
Lives and works in Budapest, Hungary

Interested in the toxicity of our relationship with nature rather than its physical traits, József Csató is persistently reducing his imagery to their most essential features. Epitomizing the forms, muting the colors, and almost carving surfaces with scars of the process, he is conveying the subdued malice and immanent sadness which drives our behavior. Walking the tightrope between figuration and abstraction, a frequent interchange of the human figure forms and leaves, flowers, or pots, is underlining the often overlooked, cosmic relationship. Washing out its vibrancy through somber, earthy colors, nature’s vivacity gets diminished towards merely staged and numbed existence. Efficiently removing everything that suggests the presence of vital force from the archetypal still life trope, Csató is forcing us to face the irreversible stillness we’re surrounding ourselves with.

Excerpt of the text by Sasha Bogojev, 2022