Inner Shades

About the artist

Botond Gagyi (b. 1992) is a Transylvanian contemporary artist living and working in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, acclaimed for his enigmatic portraits of fictitious people.
Characterised by solitary, introspective figures thin muted-tone environments, Gagyi’s oil paintings are imbued with hidden stories, inviting viewers to reflect on the nuanced nature of an individual’s microcosm.
Cast within shadowy interiors, the figures in Gagyi’s paintings diffuse into abstracted layers of impasto paint to suggest a sense of movement and presence that constantly evolves on the canvases, inviting viewers to complete the image with their own vision and read a personal narrative into each work.
Often inspired by a micro story, Gagyi works from art historical motifs and found photographs that resonate with his own personal memories and collective trauma to construct painted realities of contemporary life.