ULBERT Ádám - What drives the torn

a

What drives the torn
(while the sprouting changes its sound)

12 November 2025 – 15 January 2026

Ádám Ulbert's first solo exhibition at Rechnitzer Gallery is based on the concept of sharpness. His starting point is the "perfect" form (soft, smooth, round, symmetrical) idealized by art history and its critique from the present perspective. In contrast to easily accessible elements, he draws inspiration from other "forms" of nature that are the exact opposite: prickly, thorny, sharp, and pointed.

Driven by his interest in ecology, he explores how we can adapt to a changing natural and cultural environment. What happens if, instead of running away from what pricks and hurts us at first, we face it head on? Is it possible that this will make us stronger? Ulbert approaches nettles, roses, rosehips, cacti, and scorpions with openness and empathy, creatures whose beauty (and resilience) lies precisely in their prickliness and sharpness.

On the other hand, in his aesthetic program, he also suggests that we humans grow thorns: let us learn from the way these creatures build their "protective armor," because thorns not only protect us from the outside world, but also make us resilient and flexible. Thus, in Ulbert's thinking, spikiness becomes a supportive, helpful, and not merely uncomfortable trait, since, as he puts it, "what is not easy, what is not soft, also has healing potential."

Curated by Flóra GADÓ

ÁDÁM ULBERT

Ádám ULBERT (1984) is a visual artist and researcher who focuses primarily on exploring the connections between modernity, ecology, and science fiction. In his paintings, which balance on the border between abstraction and figurativeness, he examines how early ecological ideas—which in many ways defined the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries—were filtered into the formal language of fine art. His research-based art therefore focuses on exploring the development of ecological awareness and its reinterpretation in the present. His work is strongly inspired by science fiction literature and perspectives, as well as the history of biomorphic representations.

His artistic approach is characterized by a “back to the future” attitude, in which he examines past ideas about the future while also imagining what our planet would look like if someone from the future were to look at it. Imaginary and real entities, non-human beings, and magical phenomena dominate his paintings, sculptures, and moving image works. As he puts it, “My hypothesis is that many of the early modernist artists and thinkers who combined biology, psychology, design, and often ethnography were in fact laying the foundations for an expanded ecological sensibility.”

BIO

STUDIES

2020 - 2024 Hungarian University of Fine Art, Doctoral School

2012 - 2014 Sandberg Instituut Amsterdam (MFA)

2007 - 2010 Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (BA)

2003 - 2007 Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences, Budapest, Film theory / Aesthetics / Cultural Anthropology

RESIDENCIES

2025 (March-April) MQ Art and Ecology Residency, Museums Quartier Wien, Wien AT

2023 1646 / Budapest Gallery Exchange Program, The Hague, NL

2022 Balatorium Residency, Balaton Limnological Research Institute Tihany, HU

2019 Asian Culture Center - Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Dialogue and exchange program, Gwangju, KR

2016 Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, NL