On the Rocks – The Artkartell Collection
October 5 – 18 2018
Artkartell projectspace

It was in the windy February of 1957 that the young gallerist Leo Castello and his wife visited Robert Rauschenberg in his studio in Manhattan. The friendly and attentive artist offered them a drink immediately (just remember the good old Mad Men-world). As, however, Robert ran out of ice cubes, they had to turn to the neighbouring studio to get some. The studio next door happened to be Jasper Johns’. That was where the later to become star-gallerist art dealers first saw Johns’ pop art masterpieces. On the very same day they offered him a solo exhibition. That’s how it all began: with the ice cubes, or, as in bartender slang, the rocks. What came after that is history, heavy art history sprouting from bare rocks.

PP Center, that accommodates Artkartell, has also fertilized bare rocks, the dreary ruins of a once great factory site at Szentendrei Street working tirelessly for two and a half decades now. Cultural investment brought new colour to old building stones, bricks and massive concrete blocks. The diverse fine arts event series under the auspices of Artkartell (Partizan Art Studios and Gallery, Artkartell Magazine, Artkartell projectspace) was launched in 2012 focusing on contemporary artists. A colourful and rich contemporary private collection – owned by the Pátkai family – has started to form around this institution, and will open to public for the first time in the elegant white spaces of Artkartell projectspace. The pieces for the On the Rocks exhibition have all been carefully selected from the hundreds of art works in this collection by the curator, Gábor Rieder, supervising the professional program of Artkartell. Covering a wide field from young talents still to be discovered to well-known contemporary classics, this exhibition presents the smart, ironic and dreamer side of The Artkartell Collection arriving from the cold industrial aesthetics to warm cosiness. A lunar footprint, a bear scratching itself, a tortured chair, a pissing fountain statue and a totem pole. Toys twisted into grotesque, lyricism turned into zinger, philosophizing fables, flowers blooming between the rocks and ice cubes splashing in cool, refreshing drinks. The Artkartell Collection – On the Rocks. (Gábor Rieder)

Ádám Dallos, Ákos Bánki, Ákos Ezer, Anna Nemes, Balázs Veres, Baptistelli Bruno (BRA), Botond Keresztesi, Erik Tollas, Éva Mónika Horváth, Ferenc Hack, Gábor Pintér, Gergely Koszorús, Imre Bak, János Huszti, Joséphine Vejrich (SWE), Károly Kelemen, Lang Florian (AUT), László feLugossy, László Karácsonyi, Lilla Törteli, Marika&Leopard (RUS), Melinda Dovák, Mira Dalma Makai, Nándor Keszeg, Norbert Menyhárt, Orsolya Oláh, Péter Forgács, Péter Szalay, Petra Szabó Klára, Ramóna Pap, Róbert Batykó, Tamás Hencze, Zsili Bertalan Babos, Zsófia Magdolna Nagy, Zsolt Tibor