The Transylvanian Art Center cordially invites You to the opening of Mária Kopacz’s exhibition on Monday, the 16th of August 2021, at 4 pm at the Transylvanian Art Center (Sfântu Gheorghe, Oltului street no. 2, ground floor)

At the vernissage will be speaking Árpád András Antal, mayor of Saint George Municipality, Zsolt Németh Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Hungarian National Assembly and Beáta Bordás PhD, coordinator of the Transylvanian Art Center.

The exhibition will be opened by Zoltán Vécsi Nagy, art historian and Ferenc Deák, art critic.

The event is held with consideration to reduce the risk of the spreading of coronavirus pandemic, wearing masks properly and maintaining the required social distance during the event is obligatory.

The exhibition can be visited between the 17th of August and the 13rd of September 2021, from Tuesdays to Fridays from 10 to 17, and on Saturdays from 10 to 18.

Sponsors: Town Hall of Sfântu Gheorghe, Transylvanian Art Center Association, Bethlen Gábor Foundation

Mária KOPACZ: graphic artist, painter, writer | Târgu Mureș, 21 December 1941

In 1967, she graduated from the "Ion Andreescu" College of Fine Arts in Cluj-Napoca, at the Graphic Arts Department, with László Feszt as her teacher. From the time she was a student her drawings and illustrations were published in the magazines Utunk, Igaz Szó, A Hét, Új Élet, Napsugár, and she was also involved in book illustration. From 1968 onwards, she participated in graphic art shows in Cluj county and also in country wide exhibitions. Between 1968 and 1974, she was on study trips to several European cities (e.g. Munich, Paris, Vienna, Bern, Zurich, Berlin, Leipzig, Prague, Oslo, Stockholm). In 1975, she became a member of the Romanian Fine Artists’ Union. She lived and worked in Cluj-Napoca until 1993, when she settled in Szentendre after her marriage to László Alföldi, the Hungarian Consul General in Cluj-Napoca. After that, she lived in Cluj-Napoca for a few years, then in Bucharest with her husband, and since 2016 she has been living and working in Szentendre again.

She started her career with etchings, then later, from the early 1980s, she made large colour pencil drawings, and in the early 1990s she moved to oil painting. According to her, it was when she started using acrylics that she really found herself, and accordingly her new paintings were done with this technique. Her paintings predominantly depict people, animals, real or imaginary creatures, and in her Garden series she captures different aspects of her garden in Szentendre. In her prints and paintings, she creates her own fairytale world, as if projecting images from her subconscious on to the canvas. According to the art historian Zoltán Banner, Mária Kopacz "is surrealist in technique, close to Art Nouveau and Expressionism in her means of artistic expression, while absurd in style and message."

Notable solo exhibitions:

• 1969: National Art Base Gallery (Fondul Plastic), Târgu Mureș
• 1971, 1973, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1986, 1988: National Art Base Small Gallery, Cluj Napoca
• 1974: Orly Art Gallery, Basel (CH); Korunk Art Gallery, Cluj Napoca
• 1975: Oradea; Cupola Art Gallery, Iași (with graphic artists Piroska Farkas and Ágnes Kovrig); Tribuna small Gallery, Cluj Napoca
• 1976: Blutgasse Art Gallery, Vienna (A); National Art Base Gallery, Târgu Mureș
• 1977: Eforie-Hall, Bucharest
• 1979: Galateea Art Gallery, Bucharest
• 1982: Art Gallery, Satu Mare
• 1983: Young Artists’ Club, Budapest
• 1984: La Panthera Art Gallery, Pisa (I)
• 1986: Eforie Art Gallery, Bucharest
• 1988: „House of Arts” (Căminul Artei) Art Gallery, Bucharest
• 1991: Mini Art Gallery, Miskolc (H); Sillye Gábor Cultural Center, Hajdúböszörmény (H)
• 1992: Árkád Art Gallery, Budapest
• 1993: Collegium Hungaricum, Vienna
• 1996: Cultural Home, Leányfalu (H)
• 2000: Art Gallery, Sepsiszentgyörgy
• 2001: Kriterion House, Miercurea Ciuc; Gaál Imre Art Gallery, Budapest; Pro Art Gallery, Gheorgheni; Culture Palace ground floor gallery, Târgu Mureș
• 2002: Carnival, Hungarian Cultural Institute, Paris (F); Art Gallery, Szentendre
• 2003: Carnival, Budapest Art Gallery, Budapest; ART-MA Art Gallery, Dunajská Streda (SK); Hungarian Cultural Institute, Stuttgart (D)
• 2004: Erdélyi Ház, Sopron (H); University, Miskolc (H)
• 2005: Collegium Hungaricum, Vienna; Old Art Colony Gallery, Szentendre (H)
• 2006: Carnival, Vármegye Art Gallery and Magyar Kultúra Háza (House of Hungarian Culture), Budapest; Hungarian Cultural Institute, Bucharest
• 2008: Artis Gallery, Bucharest
• 2009: Körmendi Art Gallery, Sopron; Carnival, Romanian Cultural Institute, Szeged (H)
• 2010: InnoArt Studio-Gallery, Szentendre
• 2011: Skanzen Art Gallery, Szentendre; Lebegő valóság (Floating reality), Erdélyi Ház, Sopron
• 2014: Carnival, Petőfi Theatre, Veszprém (H)
• 2015: Gothic Art Gallery, Szczecin (PL); Galleria Camponovo, Varese (I)
• 2017: Az Erdő/(The Forest) InnoArt Studio-Gallery, Szentendre
• 2019: A kert/(The Garden) Bernády-house, Târgu Mureș
• 2020: Az én kertem/(My Garden) Új Műhely Art Gallery, Szentendre

Group exhibitions (selection):

• 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1979, 1983: Republican Salon of Drawing and Engraving/(Salonul Republican de Desen și Gravură), Bucharest
• 1972: Republican Salon of Drawing and Engraving, Galați
• 1973, 1974, 1975: Engraving Salon/(Salonul de Gravură), Cluj Napoca
• 1973: Viareggio-Prato (I)
• 1974: Orizont Art Gallery, Bucharest; II Biennale of Young Artists from Cluj, Cluj Napoca
• 1976: Art Gallery, Târgu Mureș
• 1978: 101 Korunk Exhibition, Cluj Napoca
• 1983: Exhibition of the Fine Artists’ Union from Socialist Republic of Romania, (USA)
• 1987, 1990: Intergrafik: internationale triennale, Berlin (D)
• 1992: 12 Transylvanian artists, Erdős Renée-house, Budapest and Déri Museum, Debrecen
• 2001, 2003: Határok nélkül/(Without frontiers), Vármegye Art Gallery, Budapest
• 2002: „Felezőidő” – Hungarian art in Romania between 1965–75, Ernst Museum, Budapest
• 2010: Transylvanian artists in Leányfalu, Comunal house, Leányfalu
• 2011: Selection of Cluj graphic art. 1960-1980, Quadro Art Gallery, Cluj Napoca
• 2011: Hungarian Art, Art Museum, Beijing (PRC)

Self illustrated books:

• A babiloni karperec (regény) / The babylonian bracelet (novel). Dacia Publishing, Cluj Napoca, 1984.
• Borika világkörüli sétája egy szerda délután (gyermekkönyv) / Borika's walk around the world on a Wednesday afternoon (children's book). Ion Creangă Publishing, Bucharest, 1985.
• Borika és a padlás manója (gyerekkönyv) / Borika and the attic elf (children's book) Mentor Publishing, Târgu Mureș, 2010.
• Abban az órában (regény) / At that hour (novel) Irodalmi Jelen Publishing, Budapest, 2009.

Prizes:

• 1972: Youth Award of the Cluj Branch of the Fine Artists’ Union
• 1974: Korunk Prize
• 2009: Tőkés Sándor Prize, Berekfürdő Art Camp

Literature:

• Klára SZÉLES: „Ablakok” és „ellenablakok”. Korunk Magazine, 1980/10. 739–741.
• Gábor TAKÁCS: Kopacz Mária képi jegyeiről. Korunk Magazine, 1984/11. 838–839.
• Gábor TAKÁCS: Tizenöt erdélyi művész. Scripta Publishing, Oradea, 1999.
• Kopacz Mária (album). ARTPrinter Publishing, Sfântu Gheorghe, 2020.