Kata GEIBL - There is Nothing New Under the Sun

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There is Nothing New Under the Sun

7 October – 6 November 2025

At her debut exhibition held at the Rechnitzer Gallery, Kata Geibl presents the material from her photobook There is Nothing New Under the Sun. The exhibition consists of a selection of photographs from the monograph along with related texts, brought together in a version reimagined specifically for this occasion. The series offers a sharp critique of the mechanisms of late capitalist society.

In her precisely composed, aesthetically refined photographs — depicting, among other things, skyscrapers, idyllic landscapes, and athletic male bodies — Geibl holds a mirror up to a world increasingly shaped by rising individualism and the parallel disintegration of communal bonds. Her series reflects on constant competition and performance pressure, the resulting burnout and self-exploitation, as well as the hypocrisy of the "art world."

While the photographs serve as imprints of these contemporary phenomena, they never become mere illustrations — the accompanying, personally toned texts place them in a broader context. At the same time, the title also suggests that this mode of existence has long been with us, often going unnoticed precisely because it has become so deeply embedded in our everyday lives.

KATA GEIBL

GEIBL Kata (b. 1989) graduated with a BA in Photography from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, and later continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Arts (KABK) in The Hague, where she obtained her MA in Photography and Society. She is currently a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of MOME.

Her work consistently engages with a critical interpretation of the late capitalist system, approached through associative and metaphorical visual strategies while avoiding illustrative representation. The duality of photography—images being perceived simultaneously as evidence of truth and as objects of suspicion due to contemporary technologies—plays a central role in her practice. By exploiting this tension, she addresses real social phenomena without adhering to conventional documentary methods that prioritize truth. As a result, her works often intertwine reality and fiction, science and imagination—emphasizing the coexistence of multiple realities.

She regularly participates in both national and international exhibitions and residency programs. Her series Sisyphus was awarded the Paris Photo Carte Blanche Prize, and in the same year she was shortlisted for the Palm Photo Prize*. She received the Hungarian Photographers’ Association Scholarship in 2018 and the Pécsi József Scholarship in 2019, and was also selected as a talent for the Futures Platform.

With her series There is Nothing New Under the Sun she won the PH Museum Vogue Italia Prize (2019). In 2021 she was nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, received the Dior Photography Award, and in 2022 was granted the FOAM Talent Award. Her most recent series (Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue) won an Honorable Mention at the Grand Prix Images Vevey in 2025, and will debut at the Images Vevey Biennale in 2026.

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