Brigitta Kocsis: #techboyz
Join us for the opening reception for #techboyz by Brigitta Kocsis on Thursday, September 22nd from 5 – 8 pm.
From September 22nd – October 6th, Brigitta Kocsis exhibits her series, #techboyz featuring new work specifically painted for the Petley Jones Gallery. The work reflects on the identity and displacement of young adults after long periods of isolation. Contemporary Hungarian-born Canadian visual artist, Brigitta Kocsis is best known for her large-scale paintings investigating the shifting concepts of the human body and its environment. This series focuses on the everyday life of young tech workers in Montreal, at a critical time of their life during the global pandemic.
Focusing on the human body, Kocsis arranges her male subjects within an environment of layered of paint and mark-making. The subjects are almost lost, impatient and captured in a moment of waiting, as their limbs disappear into their immaterial surroundings. The patterns and colors allow her characters to blur the distinction between the virtual and the actual.
Kocsis’ work has been included in group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the Geneva Art Biennale; the Balassi Institute, Finland; Szeged University, Hungary; Harcourt House, Edmonton; Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby; Grunt Gallery, Vancouver; Brooklyn Expo Center, New York; Outremont Art Gallery, Montreal. She participated in residencies in Paris, Berlin, Vancouver, Vermont, and received several grants and awards.
The artist is in attendance at the opening reception, and we hope to greet you in the gallery with a glass of wine.
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#techboyz is a fourteen-piece series of acrylic paintings inspired by the everyday life of young information technology workers and captures a special moment in time where they regain a sense of freedom after a long period of isolation.
Working in the Mile-End neighborhood in Montreal, I was taken by seeing so many young men huddling together, searching for answers at such a critical time in their life. After enduring a long dystopian pandemic, this project has helped me get involved and turn towards new personal and professional progression. The series is grounded in my community, and it compelled me to develop new artistic endeavors.
#techboyz brings together different strategies and techniques to express my relationship with the subject formally and conceptually. My work is based on fictionalized reality and the human condition, constructing visual situations with multiple layers of meaning and possible narratives. My ongoing concerns with abstraction and figuration enable a unique dialogue against a background of different styles. The patterns and colors allow certain characteristics to slip into the process to blur the distinction between the virtual and the actual. I’m interested in experimenting with the hybridity of both form and subject, where the image is not only restricted to what we see, but how we experience memory, time, and space in our contemporary digital living.
Brigitta Kocsis is a contemporary Hungarian-born Canadian visual artist, best known for her large scale paintings investigating the shifting concepts of the human body and its environment. She took drawing lessons at the Studio For Young Artists (Fiatal Művészek Klubja-FMK) and attended the Marczibányi-téri kör (Marczibanyi Education Center) in Budapest, HU where she studied art under Szlavik, Lajos painter until 1988. She moved to the UK and learned English in Brixton and after two years there, relocated to Montreal in 1990 to pursue her education at Concordia University Fine Arts.
At the beginning of her career, Kocsis’s artistic interests included painting, media and video art. After moving to Vancouver in 1994 she exhibited large scale multimedia installations and screened several videos nationally. In 2000, she started focusing on painting, integrating abstract and figurative elements. She received her BFA in Vancouver from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2005 and has dedicated herself to painting since then.
Kocsis’ work has been included in group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the Geneva Art Biennale; the Balassi Institute, Finland; Szeged University, Hungary; Harcourt House, Edmonton; Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby; Grunt Gallery, Vancouver; Brooklyn Expo Center, New York; Outremont Art Gallery, Montreal. She participated in residencies in Paris, Berlin, Vancouver, Vermont, and received several grants and awards.
Kocsis’ most recent series #techboyz, was curated by Lubos Culen at the Vernon Public Art Gallery. In conjunction with the exhibition, an ISBN registered catalog was published, with an essay written by Michael Boyce, a published author of fiction, artist reviews, and criticism. Kocsis is interested in unfolding the implications of the structural and theoretical formations within the painting process by challenging the expectations of conventional abstraction and figuration.
Brigitta Kocsis
#405-765 Rue Bourget,
Montreal, QC H4C 0A5
514-409-4605
kocsis@b–k.ca
http://www.b–k.ca
Education
2005 BFA, Visual Arts, Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Vancouver, BC
1997 Multimedia Program, The Western Front, Vancouver, BC
1993-94 Visual Arts Program, Studio Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, QC
Solo Exhibitions
2022 #techboyz, Vernon Public Art Gallery, curated by Lubos Culen, Vernon, BC
2019 Contingent Bodies, Outremont Art Gallery, curated by Laurent Bouchard, Mtl., QC.
2017 Contingent Bodies, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, AB
2017 Contingent Bodies, Grunt Gallery, curated by Glenn Alteen, Vancouver, BC
2016 Universal Gravitation, Burnaby Art Gallery’s off-site exhibition, curated by
Jennifer Cane, Burnaby, BC
2015 Magnetic Fields, Okotoks Art Gallery, Calgary, AB
2015 Magnetic Fields, Yrjö Liipolan Museum, Koski, Finland
2015 Magnetic Fields, Balassi Institute, curated by Yukka Haverinen, Helsinki, Finland
2015 Magnetic Fields, Szeged University of Hungary, Szeged, Hungary
2014 Magnetic Fields, Harcourt House, Edmonton, AB
2012 Secret Mechanisms, Gallery Gachet, Vancouver, BC
2012 Hide()us, Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2011 Secret Mechanisms, Vernon Public Art Gallery, curated by Lubos Culen,
2011 Hide()us, Mac11 Geneva Art Biennale, AaD Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland.
2011 Hide()us, Nuit des Bains, AaD Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2011 Secret Mechanisms, Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2009 Secret Mechanisms, Campbell River Public Art Gallery, Campbell River, BC
2007 On an Intimate Dimension, VECC, Vancouver, BC
2006 In the Altogether, Maple Ridge Public Art Gallery, Maple Ridge, BC
1997 The Eye of the Beholder, Gallery Sansair, Vancouver, BC
1995 Cooped, Gallery Sansair, Vancouver, BC
1994 Tea Party, Fine Arts Building, Concordia University, Montreal, QC
Two-Person Exhibitions
2007 Resonance, with M. Lowry, Amelia Douglas Gallery, New Westminster, BC
1995 Proforma, with Folke Kobberling, Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Song Word Art House, in Partnership with The Tragically Hip, art inspired by the iconic
lyrics of the legendary Canadian band The Tragically Hip, Muskoka, Ontario
2022 Diefenbunker Museum, Canadian-Hungarian Artists Collective, Ottawa, ON
2021 La Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay, Montreal, QC
2018 Brooklyn Contemporary Art Fair, Presented by Saatchi Art, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2017 The Salt Spring National Art Prize Finalists Exhibition, Salt Spring Island, BC
2016 Gallery Gachet, Vancouver, BC
2014 Art Exhibit at Science World, ECUAD in collaboration with TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC
2013 AMS Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
2013 Interurban Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2013 Smash Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2012 Drawing Festival’12, Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2011 Drawing Festival’11, Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2010 Celebrate the Art of Canada, Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2008 Chapel Arts, Vancouver, BC
2007 Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2006 British Columbia Psychological Association Awards, SFU, Vancouver, BC
2004 Threshold, Concourse Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2003 The Figurative Show, Concourse Gallery, ECI, Vancouver, BC
1999 Grunt Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1996 Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1995 Or Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Awards/Residencies
2022 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont , USA
2022 Creation Grant – Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
2020 Helen Frankenthaler Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center
2017 The Salt Spring National Art Prize Finalist
2017 Project Assistance Grant – BC Arts Council
2015 Travel Grant – The Canada Council for the Arts
2014 Travel Grant – BC Arts Council
2011 Travel Grant – The Canada Council for the Arts
2011 Research & Creation Grant – The Canada Council for the Arts
1998 Residency – Vancouver Film School, Vancouver, BC
1995 Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design Student Awards
Selected Presentations/Workshops
2022 Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC
2020 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont, USA
2019 Outremont Art Gallery, Montreal, QC
2017 Grunt Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2014 Langara College, Vancouver, BC
2014 Harcourt House, Edmonton, AB
2012 Gallery Gachet, Vancouver, BC
2012 Simon Fraser University – Critical Inquiries Post-Conference, Vancouver, BC
2011 Fine Arts Academy, Geneva, Switzerland
2006 Maple Ridge Public Art Gallery, Maple Ridge, BC
Videos/Screenings/Festivals
1998 Frenesia Tipica (video), Vancouver Community Art Council collaboration with David
Monacchi & Giorgio Magnanensi), Vancouver, BC
1998 Minz & Maunz (video), collaboration with Giorgio Magnanensi.
1998 Imposed Hallucination (video), collaboration with Philip Giborski,
SYNC II Film Video Festival, Toronto, ON; Vancouver Community Art Council, BC;
Vancouver Film School, BC
1998 An Indian Act Shooting the Indian Act, Grunt Gallery & British Locus+, Wells, UK
1997 CRT Doodles (video), sound by Phil Giborski, OR Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1997 Stylus (Zev Asher, Alex MacKenzie, Phil Giborski), Vancouver Film School, BC
1995 Proforma, Video broadcast, “Production Parade”, Rogers Cable and at the
ECIAD Media Show’95, Vancouver, BC
1995 Roughage (live video), 10th Improvised Music Festival, Seattle, Washington, USA
Publications
Canadian-Hungarian Artists Collective (CHAC). YouTube, YouTube, 22 Jun. 2022,
Diefenbunker Museum, Ottawa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_6SNjLxyZM
“Brigitta Kocsis: #techboyz”, catalogue, Spring 2022, essays by: Michael Boyce,
Vernon Public Art Gallery, ISBN: 978-1-927407-67-7
Willow Little. “Contingent Bodies: Metamorphosis in the Moment.” Westmount
Magazine, Andrew Burlone, Dec. 2018,
www.westmountmag.ca/category/art-culture/art-galleries/.
Journal d’Outremont. YouTube, YouTube, 22 Jan. 2019,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOXCGmujDto.
Robert-Bourassa, Bibliothèque. YouTube, YouTube, 11 Jan. 2019,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=twp72W3G6T8.
Gomez, Laura. “Interview with Brigitta Kocsis.” Rev. of artist Brigitta Kocsis,
Klassik Magazine International Mag., n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2018.
“Brigitta Kocsis: Contingent Bodies”, catalogue, Spring 2017, essays by: Clint Burnham, Grunt
Gallery, ISBN: 978-1988708-01-0.2017
“SSNAP Finalist’s Exhibition”, catalogue, Fall 2017, 22 cm x 28 cm, 112 pages,
full color. Salt Spring Art Council.
Wadsley, Helena. “Magnetic Fields by B. Kocsis.” Rev. of Magnetic Fields, artist Brigitta
Kocsis, Prairie Seen 1 Sept. 2014: 33-34. Print.
Yang, Molly. “Showcasing today’s artist of the day: Brigitta Kocsis.” Rev. of artist
Brigitta Kocsis, Atom Review Mag., n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2014.
Priegert, Portia. “Featured Artists: Brigitta Kocsis.” Rev. of artist Brigitta Kocsis,
Galleries West Anniversary Issue 3 2011: 22. Print.
Johnson, Mia. “Kocsis: Secret Mechanisms”. Preview Art Magazine Feb. 2011:20. Print.
Buchard, Eva. “Brigitta Kocsis: Secret Mechanisms”. Escene: Emily Carr University’s
Alumni Magazine 4 Dec., 2011: 4. Print.
“The Boundary between Body and Environment”. Mirror Jul. 2009: 6. Print.
Greer, Darryl. “After a Rough Start”. Globe and Mail 2009: 20. Print.
Buchard, Eva. “Brigitta Kocsis: Secret Mechanisms”. Escene: ECUD’s Alumni Magazine 2008: 2. Print.
Proforma 1995 archive of the Emily Carr Institute Library, Van., Canada. Video.
Proforma 1995 GHK (Art Academy of Kassel), Kassel, Germany. Video