Andràs J. Nagy - Naked City II

Duration: 5.2. - 28.3.2020

  • András J. Nagy, Déak tér, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, wt, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Grip(e), digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, wt, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Present Future, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, wt, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Bed, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, A Home..., digital photography, ed. 1/5, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Speeding/Still, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Nose, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Beheade(a)d, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Magyar test(vér), digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Flooded Fog, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Homeless Hero, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Evil-UTE, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Tilos 90,2 FM, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Margit híd HEV Station, digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • András J. Nagy, Victim (Guilty), digital photography, ed. 1/5, 2014, 25x25 cm
  • Sill, 2007, oil on canvas, 120x140 cm
  • At The Line, 2009, oil on canvas, 90x120 cm
  • Life Film, 2008, oil on canvas, 160x120 cm
  • Wordless, 2006, oil on canvas, 90x120
  • Man and Woman, 2007, oil on canvas, 120x160 cm
  • Lucy, 2009, oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cm
  • Magdalena, Hairy In-Between, 2009, oil on canvas, 110x160 cm
  • Being like Tweety, 2007, oil on canvas, 140x110 cm

 

With the exhibition "Naked City II" the Knoll Gallery Vienna presents the current photo series of the Hungarian photographer Andràs J. Nagy. The exhibition brings together various themes of street photography that are part of Nagy's oeuvre with a special focus on people who live in the city and those who are outlived by it.

Andràs J. Nagy is an experienced observer of people who populate the urban habitat with him. At the age of eight years, he turned to the camera for the first time. Since then he has continuously developed his seismographic sense for the changes and movements of urban space and its inhabitants. The artist reacts with great sensitivity to the immediacy of fleeting events, which he documents photographically, with his special perspective that strongly involves the ground, showing it with all its unevenness. The artist captures the barrenness and presence of the ground, which adheres to the city when viewed as a biotope, in which, beyond the surface, mute and secret things are taking place. As an intruder into a space that remains hidden from those who tilt their gaze at the smooth surface of the skyscrapers, Nagy infiltrates unusual perspectives and visual possibilities that are connected with the shadowy. The lowered view reveals a nostalgia that names things that are threatened by decay and shows people who have been lost. The lost leaves traces in the pictorial space and adds a component to the urban narrative that is far away from the urban images of the self-portrayal and marketing industries. The smooth and superficial is also denied by Nagy through the traces on the photographic material, because in the end there is no unbroken view of the city, but only that through a lens full of bumps and scratches.

Many of Nagy's photographs are an expression of vulnerability, witnesses to an intimacy that otherwise remains in the dark without his intervention. With great care he observes homeless people and passers-by, busy people and those who have fallen asleep, a man clearing his car of snow, a group of friends chatting and laughing, things that cannot realize themselves coming to an end. What remains is the city with all its unevenness.