Visiting period: 28th of February – 30th of April 2025

Order of works: Péter Madaras | Co-curator: István Bába

Opening: The exhibition was opened on the 28th of February 2025 at 6 pm by Transylvanian Art Centre’s coordinator dr. Beáta Bordás and István Bába, painter and curator.

“This exhibition is not merely a succession of images; it is a comprehensive reflection that contrasts the alienating and devaluing nature of consumerism with the permanence and personal message of timeless artistic creation. In this richness of objects and symbolism, Sándor Juhos has found a voice that is simultaneously classical and contemporary, lyrical and critical.

At first glance, the artworks are extremely realistic: the play of light and shadow, the plasticity of the objects, the lifelike details are all reminiscent of the Baroque or Flemish masters. Yet the logic of the arrangements is often absurd. It is as if the still lifes were only twisting reality to the point of distancing it slightly, while still showing everything with pinpoint precision. (...) The artist’s hyperrealism is a painterly strategy that contrasts the seemingly sterile, flawless reality with absurdities such as floating or unusual pairings of objects. This is surrealism, but not the Dalí-esque visionariness: rather, it is a postmodern/metamodern dichotomy, where the images simultaneously play with realistic and imaginative elements. This kind of crossing of genre boundaries is a characteristic feature of the metamodern mindset.” (István Bába)

The exhibition material is accompanied by a trilingual catalogue with a foreword by István Bába.

Sándor JUHOS (Cluj-Napoca, 1974)

After an unconventional career in his youth, it was in 1999 when the time came for Sándor Juhos to realize his long-standing desire to earn a reputation in the field of fine arts. In that year he became a painting student at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca. He completed his bachelor’s degree in 2003, obtained the master’s degree in 2005 and defended his doctoral dissertation in 2010.

As a second-year university student, he was a founding member and then for eight years co-curator of the Bulgakov Gallery in Cluj-Napoca, where he curated an average of ten exhibitions a year. He began the “craft” of still life painting in 2008, the first six years of which he now counts as a period of study. In 2014, he achieved his own, mature style of still life painting, which he has consistently pursued in his own characteristic way ever since. Since then, he has participated in group and solo exhibitions with his works. In 2023, he was awarded a three-year Art Scholarship by the Hungarian Academy of Arts. He currently lives and works in his hometown, Cluj-Napoca.

The Cluj painter consciously chose the more difficult path when he immersed himself in still life painting. While a significant part of the contemporary art scene is now shaped by digital experiments, multimedia installations and conceptual art, he has stuck to classical painting techniques, because still life, with its time-consuming, brushstroke-by-brushstroke working method, requires a degree of concentration that is characteristic of few other genres. It was this careful, meticulous technique that made possible for him to perfect his painting technique to the last detail, drawing on the Flemish tradition, while also developing his own individual system of symbols. For him, still life is not simply a matter of genre or technique: it is rather an artistic stance in its own right, able to reinterpret the classical craft fundamentals in a way that reflects contemporary realities.

Solo exhibitions (characteristic of his present style): 2020: Lucid Dreams, Lugano, Switzerland • 2019: Abundance, Estopia Gallery, Bucharest • 2015: Fragile Equations, Nano Gallery, Brush Factory, Cluj-Napoca; Death of the Hummingbird, Bázis Contemporary Gallery, Brush Factory, Cluj-Napoca • 2014: Paintings and Butterflies, Kaja Tanya, Cluj-Napoca

Duo exhibitions: 2023: New Narratives (with graphic artist András Szabó), Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca • 2017: Act Anima (with András Szabó), Nano Gallery, Centrul de Interes, Cluj-Napoca

Organizers: Sfântu Gheorghe City Hall, Transylvanian Art Centre Association
Sponsor: Hungarian Government – State Secretary for National Policy, Bethlen Gábor Fund