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Self Critical Portrait
2013-2016

project | Co-Authors: Kata Oltai curator, art historian; Gábor Szenteleki, painter | Photos: Miklós Sulyok

"Lőrinc Borsos is a fictitious contemporary artist called to life by János Borsos and Lilla Lőrinc in 2008. He is active mainly in the genres of painting and installation, but being faithful to conceptual traditions, he never stops seeking the most appropriate medium, technique and language for addressing the explored context. Besides projects of a personal tone, he reflects on current and universal social and political phenomena." This was how the artist duo defined themselves in 2013. They invited Gábor Szenteleki and Kata Oltai to temporally extend their personality.

It became clear at the start of the project that the tools used for self-scrutiny and self-definition would not only be the ones traditionally used by art history, but also those employed in affiliated disciplines, such as sociology, cultural anthropology or psychology, as well as mechanisms of entirely disassociated fields. Besides the quest for real answers, these inquiries have made it possible to scrutinize ingrained responses, role clichés and methods of resolution.

How far does the supposedly omnipotent role of the artist extend; the hallmark and style, as qualities of identification and recognizability (expected even by art trade); the necessary or superfluous, symbiotic or parasitic role of the curator as facilitator or hindrance? Is undertaking a critical condition in a public art scene that prescribes progressiveness equivalent to suicide? Can private life and artist identity be merged? As an artist duo, are they dominated by their female or male identity? Do they have to make a choice as to what kind of dynamic moves this relationship? Is all of this sustainable in a private partnership (marriage)?

The participants have considered themselves equal creative partners from the start, their roles put down in a contract, their negotiations logged. With the help of the project as well as psychotherapy, Borsos and Lőrinc have re-examined their relation to the hybrid artist brought to life by the two of them. Szenteleki’s role has been to attempt to visualize the emerging anomalies in painting while reinventing his own pictorial language. The cyclically reconceptualized process has been consolidated through the coordinating and analytical role of the curator.

The paintings created throughout the Self-Critical Portrait project (2013-2016) are the work of painter Gábor Szenteleki (author 1), co-authored by curator and art historian Kata Oltai (author 2), and signed by visual artist Lőrinc Borsos (author 3).

More information: https://www.facebook.com/onkritikusportre

Little Prick
2014 | oil on canvas | 80x60 cm

Hero | Study I., II, II.
Exhibition view | kArton Gallery, Budapest

Representative Thug
2014 | oil on wood panel | 120x 80x 5 cm

Representative Thug
Exhibition view

Nine fingers
2014 | oil on canvas | 90x70 cm

Superartist
2016 | print, foil, plexiglas picture frame | 21x29,7x5 cm

Photograph of the DeBono meeting in 2014 rendered impersonal.

De Bono sketches 7, 8
2014 | pen, paper, 25 pieces | 21x29,7 cm

Agreement
2014 | print | A/4 | signed by: Borsos, Lőrinc, Oltai, Szenteleki

Psychomorph Study IV.
2014 | acrylic on paper | 57x40,5 cm

What Size
2015 | oil on canvas | 20x20 cm

Sweetie Pie
2015 | oil on canvas | 65x50 cm

Wound Licker
2015 | oil on canvas | 45x35 cm
Exhibition view | kArton Gallery, Budapest

Wound Licker
2015 | oil on canvas | 45x35 cm

Rectal Creature
2015 | oil on canvas | 40x50 cm

Beast
2016 | oil on canvas | 35x45 cm
exhibition view | 2015 | Mindsets, FKSE, Budapest | Photo: Áron Kútvölgyi-Szabó

Beast
2016 | oil on canvas | 35x45 cm

Exhibition view
2015 | Mindsets, FKSE, Budapest | Photo: Áron Kútvölgyi-Szabó

Peripheric Object
2015 | Mindsets, FKSE, Budapest | Photo: Áron Kútvölgyi-Szabó

Glomance
2016 | oil on canvas | 20x20 cm

House (black)
2015 | oil and enamel on canvas | 20x20 cm

Temporary Event, Labor Gallery, 17-19. June 2015 (Documentation)
2015 | Exhibition view | kArton Gallery, Budapest | photo: Bianka Dancseniko

Homeward Bound (backside)
2015 | Exhibition view | kArton Gallery, Budapest

Homeward Bound
2015 | oil on canvas | 90x60 cm

Flag
2015 | lacquer, zip-tie, flagpole | 20x200 cm

Temporary Event, Labor Gallery, 17-19. June 2015
(Documentation)

Scared of the Lightning
2015 | oil on canvas | 60x75 cm

Parasite II.
2015 | oil on canvas | 80x60 cm

Not a Pear
2015 | oil on canvas, enamel paint | 20x20 cm

Flag - reversed reproduction (umbrella)
2016 | print on paper | 30x40 cm
115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest

Bibliographical Collection
2016 | print and pen on paper, post-it
| varying size | conception: Kata Oltai | assistant: Eszter Márkus
115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest

Bibliographical Collection (detail)
2016 | 115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest

Who is Who
2016 | installation | giant poster | varying size
2016 | 115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest

Statement Object I.
2016 | wardrobe, lightbox | Special thanks to Péter Halász
115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest

Statement Object I. (detail)

Exhibition view
2016 | 115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest

House (wounded)
2015 | oil on canvas | 20x20 cm

Statement Object II, III
2016 | cone, chalcopyrite, zip-tie, plastic | 9x15x5 cm
2016 | glass, cone | 12x8x5 cm

Helicon
2015 | rain gutter guard, solar powered lamp, wood board | 40x40x10 cm

Helicon
2016 | Exhibition view | 115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest

Hider
2016 | mask (2 pieces), colour printed cotton, clothespin | Special thanks to Erik Mátrai | bathrobe (2 pieces) L, XL
Exhibition view | 115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest

Love Corner
2016 | Exhibition view | 115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest

Love Potion
2016 | schnapps on fruit bed, bottle, plastic pedestal | 10x24 cm

Random Feature
2013-2016 | video, 720x576 Pal, 23'09" | subtitles: Márk Radics | Special thanks to Thyris Clinic, NKA
2016 | Exhibition view | 115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest

Woman in love
2016 | wav loop | 3'15" | red bulb, toilet | special thanks to Barbra Streisand
Exhibition view | 115-106 Apatment Gallery, Budapest