Gábor Városi is a Hungarian multidisciplinary visual artist whose work isn’t just hung on walls. Instead, he turns walls themselves into futuristic, light-refracting works of art. Városi’s trademark as an artist has become turning living spaces into moving glass sculptures where light dances and plays around people and surrounding structures. In his own words, “I consider buildings to be living sculptures equipped with perfect functions.”
Városi’s art-meets-architecture projects have embodied this guiding principle since 2008, when the Shambala House he designed was erected in his birthplace of Budapest. The house’s sleek, curved windows and walls allow natural light to bend and fill its interior spaces, turning the home into a glass and light installation. In 2013, Városi finished building the Art Home in Budapest’s Svábhegy district, recognizable for the almost organic structure that resembles a bird’s nest wrapped around the large glass windows separating the two-story apartments inside from the lush greenery outside. Fairly recently, Városi also constructed the Poet’s Garden project, a collection of structures including 12 apartments, 50 glass sculptures, and about a dozen serene Japanese gardens throughout the complex. The complex’s glass sculptures come in Városi’s signature style, which combines geometric abstraction with sensual composition, including humanlike forms such as faces.
Initially trained as a painter, he studied under Hungarian contemporary artist Ignác Kokas, known for his abstract landscape paintings, at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. Kokas’s influence is evident in his choice of abstract expressionism for his own painting projects, which use intense brush strokes to convey strong emotions. This preference for dynamic geometric shapes as a vehicle for self-expression was carried over when Városi began developing an interest in architecture. He says that the same principles and conceptual thinking he learned in the world of abstract painting carried over when he began experimenting with mediums such as architecture and sculpture.
“Working in three or four different fields broadens your vision and spectrum,” he commented. “Often, painters become too fixated on painting problems, just as architects often focus solely on their own domain. However, when different artistic disciplines interact and share equivalent thought processes, and you handle the big picture simultaneously, a much more complex creation can emerge.”
Városi’s efforts in art were recognized fairly early in his life when he became the first recipient of the Domanovsky Award while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts. However, when he asked, he listed his Paris exhibition’s inauguration by European contemporary painter Victor Vasarely in 1987 as one of the greatest honors of his career. Known as the godfather of the Op art movement, Vasarely had been a mentor and friend of Városi’s as he had worked on refining his art style after college. While reminiscing, Városi fondly recounted a memory of meeting up with Vasarely in Gord during that summer in 1987.
“The world-famous artist arrived in a CV2 Citroën, an old, patched-up car, with his wife Klárika at the wheel,” he said. “I found it incredibly funny that such a major global star could appear with such simplicity and a crystal-clear, luxurious yet humble attitude.”
Despite his recent string of high-profile projects, Városi says he aims to embody the same attitude, pursuing art not to further his own ambitions, but as a means to share beauty with people. Looking towards the future, he has expressed interest in holding both an exhibition and a new architectural project in America. He also has plans to showcase his ideas for “light painting” at this year’s ART Market.
Through his work as a painter, sculptor, photographer, and building designer, Gábor Városi has blurred the boundaries between different mediums of visual art, showing that artists need not limit themselves to one medium when bringing artistic concepts to life. Living sculpture homes and sculpture-inspired architecture are just two examples of embracing the intersections between different artistic mediums. As art continues to evolve, hopefully, more and more artists will come to understand the strengths of artistic synergy.
Written in partnership with Tom White
