START POINT PRIZE – Prize for emerging artists

ISTVÁNMARIÁSAKA HORRORPISTA

Mysterious, surreal stories characterised by precise drawings, distinctive stylisation and elements of horror aesthetically evoke an adult fantasyland or book illustrations. The scenes presented are rich in strong narrativity and storyline while also remaining in the realm of the unreal. The artist, who works under the pseudonym Horror Pista, prefers the characteristics and attributes of comics culture and examines several aspects of comics at the same time: the interrelationships of colours, dynamics, special approaches to drawing or painterly treatment, the way of looking at the depicted subject, the precise and thoroughly conceived composition. His objective is to create hybrid worlds which juxtapose different spacetimes and characters. Building on various genres, Pista Horror has developed, together with associative formal language and applied means of expression, a strongly individual, easily identifiable artistic style. The paintings are not created spontaneously, but rather are preceded by preparatory sketches and exact, pre-defined dimensions. Together with special old frames, they form distinctive, original objects; sometimes the entire scene unfolds from a used, often intentionally chipped frame. The works aim to visualise methods of constructing the picture, states of mind and approaches that are different from what stereotypical perceptions expect. (Lucia Gavulová)