Ádám ULBERT

ULBERT Ádám_30_Conjunction Lichen a._2024_olaj, vászon_45×40 cm

Conjunction Lichen a., 2024

oil on canvas, 45×40 cm

About the artist

I'm an artist and researcher with primary focus on pointing out relationships between modernity, ecology and science-fiction. I usually organise my artistic practice around a main research node, where I try to create a wider network of connections with references around the central topic. I most of the time use seemingly different sources and avoid an illustrative interpretation of the themes. I rather re-create or re-narrate them in a personal manner. With my practice I have examined certain works of art and ideas with three aesthetic qualities: (1.) through the motifs and history of science fictional literature and vision, (2.) exploring the emergence of ecological awareness and its reinterpretations during the ‘long 20th century’ and (3.) critiquing the form of biomorphic representations. Among other things, I am interested in how the early ecological ideas and visual worlds, that in many ways defined the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, were filtered through art and art theory of the time, into the formal language of fine art. My hypothesis is that many of the early modernist artists and thinkers who were concerned with combining biology, psychology, design and often ethnography, were in fact laying the foundations for an expanded ecological sensibility. 

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
2013   TAAK Summerschool Marfa, Marfa, Texas, US
2012   Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Berlin, DE
 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, PRIZES
 
2025   Eötvös Hungarian State Scholarship (short term research)
2024   Peter und Irene Ludwig Stiftug Research Scholarship
2023   New National Excellence Program research scholarship
2021   Esterhazy Art Award winner
2019   Stichting Stokroos material and project grant
2018   Stipendium for Established Artists (Werkbijdrage Bewezen Talent), Mondriaan Fonds
2017   Stichting Stokroos material and project grant
2016   Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds fellowship
2016   Mondriaan Fonds grant for post-academic institutions
2012   Balassi Institute project grant
2011   ESSL Art Award nomineeExhibitions, Events, Festivals

EXHIBITIONS
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
 
2024   Lights Through The Cave, with Róza El-Hassan, Longtermhandstand, Budapest
2022   the unnamed signaled: “there are things out there in the field of the recognizable.” Longtermhandstand, Budapest, HU
2022   Chinoiserie / Nature-reimagined, Esterházy Castle, Eisenstadt, AU
2020   For the forthcoming epoch of the salamander, ENA Viewing Space, Budapest, HU
2020   In Times Gone By Duo with Kata Tranker, Pince, Budapest, HU
2019   Fables From The Ship Of Fools, Artkartell projectspace Budapest, HU
2018   solo presentation at the Paris Internationale, Arkartell projectspace, Paris, FR
2017   Thalassa I. / Subliminal Intruder, FUTURA Karlin Studios, Prague, CZ
2014   Spiritus Bestiae Faber, Trapéz Gallery, Budapest, HU
2014   The Cave of the Hermaphrodite & I Knew Such Lovely Pictures duo graduation show with Matthew Shannon, at the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam
2014   Paleotempestological Inference, Zönotéka, Berlin, DE
2013   The Peeping Metals Experience, The Lombard Method, Birmingham, UK
2013   Dialogical Co-dissolution, Trapéz Gallery, Budapest, HU
2012   ”The Planet as The Festival”, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, duo exhibition with Mate Feles, Berlin, DE


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
 
2025   When We Became Strangers, Budapest Galéria, HU
2025   Habitat. Nature and Landscape Constructs, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, HU
2024   Reversed Objects, Ludwig Múzeum, Budapest, HU
2024   SCUPA II: UNTAME, Botanical Garden UPJS, Kosice, SK
2024   Eyes in the Stone, EKO 9 Triennial of Art and Environment, Maribor, SI
2023   Disturbed Waters, Balatorium exhibtion, Dubniczay Palace, Veszprém, HU
2023   Listening to the waterfalls of the sun, tranzit.sk, Bratislava, SK
2023   Beings & Creatures, Chapter 4: Beyond the Tangible, rotor Centre for Contemporary Art, Graz, AUT
2022   An eclectic attempt to complete the torso in my head, UGM Maribor, Maribor, SI
2022   Global crises, local relationships, Easttopics, Budapest, HU
2022   Drafting Futures, Q Contemporary, Budapest HU
2021   Esterhazy Art Award nomination exhibition, Ludwig Museum Budapest, HU
2021   Inventory of Forgotten Knowledge, Budapest Galéria, HU
2021   ACLIM, OFF-Biennale Budapest, HU
2019   Streamlines of the jungle, MAGMA Contemporary Art Space, Sfantu Gheorghe, RO
2019   SEDONA, Villa Du Parc Contemporary Art Center, Annemasse, FR
2018   Dreams Come From The Past, Not From The Future, Stiftung Starke - Löwenpalais, Berlin, DE
2017   pər-ˈsō-nae, Klemm's Gallery, Berlin, DE
2017   Abstract Hungary, Künstlerhaus Graz, Graz, AUT
2017   Serpents Things of Light, Yaby, Madrid, ES
2016   Figura Complexus, Trafó Gallery, Budapest, HU
2016   3_Search Presents: LIGHT YEAR 10: “Crosstalk Presents” Video Art Projections on the Manhattan Bridge, New York, US
2015   Contemporary Hungarian Painting, Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, HU
2015   Directions - European Video Art Screenings, De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam, NL
2014   Crosstalk Video Art Festival, Budapest, HU
2014   The One Minutes on Tour – Shanghai selected to Best of One Minutes, screening at Power Station of Art, Shanghai, CN
2014   Haunting monumentality, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Zagreb, HR
2012   Don't wake me up for the end of the world…, de SERVICEGARAGE, Amsterdam, NL
2012.  INexactly THIS “Kunstvlaai, 2012”, Amsterdam, NL

Artworks

ULBERT Ádám_31_Conjunction Lichen b._2024_olaj, vászon_45×40 cm

Conjunction Lichen b., 2024

oil on canvas, 45×40 cm

ULBERT Ádám_30_Conjunction Lichen a._2024_olaj, vászon_45×40 cm

Conjunction Lichen a., 2024

oil on canvas, 45×40 cm

ULBERT Ádám_15_Unnamed no. 3_2022_olaj, vászon_130×75 cm

Unnamed no. 3, 2022

oil on canvas, 130×75 cm

ULBERT Ádám_34_Unnamed no. 44_2024_olaj, vászon_130×75 cm

Unnamed no. 44, 2024

oil on canvas, 130×75 cm

ULBERT Ádám_4_Empires of a Sun, marsh land_2019_olaj, vászon_120×110 cm

Empires of a Sun, marsh land, 2019

oil on canvas, 120×110 cm

ULBERT Ádám_13_Unnamed no. 1_2022_olaj, vászon_55×65 cm Large

Unnamed no. 1, 2022

oil on canvas, 55×65 cm

ULBERT Ádám_32_Lungwort (Tüdőfű) _2024_olaj, vászon_65×45 cm

Lungwort, 2024

oil on canvas, 65×45 cm

ULBERT Ádám_29_Unnamed no. 40_2023_olaj, vászon_130×75 cm

Unnamed no. 40, 2023

oil on canvas, 130×75 cm

ULBERT Ádám_8_Salamander, Snake and Nettle _2020_olaj, vászon_120×90 cm

  Salamander, Snake and Nettle , 2020

oil on canvas, 120×90 cm

ULBERT Ádám_10_Bivalyháton_2021_olaj, vászon_160×500 cm

Bivalyháton, 2021

oil on canvas, 160×500 cm

ULBERT Ádám_11_Hut to the lotus root_2021_vegyes technika_ Large

Hut to the lotus root, 2021

mixed media

ULBERT Ádám_1_Tengeri uborka királyság_2017_vegyes technika_210×90×50 cm Large

Tengeri uborka királyság, 2017

mixed media, 210×90×50 cm

ULBERT Ádám_28_Organic intelligence 1. (Solarpunk biotechnology meets Raoul Francé)_2023_vegyes technika_200×100×50 cm

Organic intelligence 1, 2023

mixed media, 200×100×50 cm

ULBERT Ádám_9_Yumee az asztal alatt_2020_olaj, vászon_120×90 cm

Under the table, 2020

oil on canvas, 120×90 cm