ARTIST STATEMENT

I keep things by touching them—paper to wall, blade to plank, scan to body. For years I’ve made prints that double as records: the street outside my flat, the courtyard, the metro car to my studio. I show the unique print with its carved block or rubbed surface, because the memory and its source belong together. It’s a way of preserving an autonomous life without multiplying it. 

Lately I’ve been working with darkness as a material. In a museum with twenty-four skylights, I drew each window on soft paper, printed the drawings, then erased their whites with Musou Black—dot by dot—until the surface drank the light. In the space I set a light-absorbing plane opposite the windows; on the walls, the blackened prints I call ohaguro paintings. The room dims; the eye adjusts; tiny silver greys start to appear. 

Sculpture brought the shadow closer. I scan, accept the glitches, and 3D-print the fragments—figures that feel like doubles and animal alter egos, held close and held at bay. They carry the rough mesh of the data and the psychology of the shadow: the parts we repress that still do our living. 

Whether it’s a gas meter turned reliquary, a wall rubbed onto paper, a window swallowed by black, or a post-digital body that refuses to smooth itself out, the aim is the same: keep the trace, let the dark in, and make a place where looking is long enough to befriend what we’d rather not see. 

Contact

gabor.koos86@gmail.com
+36 - 30-321-1436


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Curriculum vitae

EDUCATION

  • 2010 - 2010
    Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, United Kingdom, bc in Painting and Printmaking

  • 2007 - 2012
    Hungarian University of Fine Art (MKE), Budapest, Hungary, Master of Fine Art in Printmaking


AWARDS & GRANTS

2025 - Esterházy Art Award
2022 - Smohay Prize, Székesfehérvár, Hungary
2021 - European Prize MTG, International Print Triennial in Krakow, Krakow, Poland
2020 - Prize of The Ministry of Human Capacities / XXVIII. Miskolc Graphic Triennal, Miskolc, Hungary
2015 - Gyula Derkotivs Art Scholarship, MANK, Budapest, Hungary
2014 - Graphic of the year, The Foundation for Hungarian Graphic Art, Budapest, Hungary
2014 - Prize of The Foundation for Hungarian Graphic Art / XXVI. Miskolc Graphic Triennal, The Foundation for Hungarian Graphic Art, Miskolc, Hungary
2014 - Gyula Derkotivs Art Scholarship, MANK, Budapest, Hungary
2013 - Gyula Derkotivs Art Scholarship, MANK, Budapest, Hungary
2012 - Barcsay Application Prize, MKE, Budapest, Hungary
2009 - "Flower Petals Bird Wings" 1st place, MKE, Budapest, Hungary
2009 - Erasmus scholaprship, MKE
2009 - Bertalan Székely Scholarship, MKE, Budapest, Hungary

RESIDENCIES

2019 - 4D Gallery, Galanata, Slovakia
2018 - Bruseum, Neue Galerie Graz, Graz, Austria
2015 - Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg , Stuttgart, Germany
2015 - Meetfactory, Prague, Czech Republic
2014 - Áno Lino, Banská S T ANICA, Banská Stiavnica, Slovakia
2014 - residency.ch, PROGR, Bern, Switzerland
2010 - Erasmus, Glasgow School of Art (GSA), Glasgow, United Kingdom

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025 - Dark Matter, Inda Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2025 - Avalanche, Művház, Budapest, Hungary
2024 - “don’t worry, I’m just a hop, skip, jump away”, aqbmines, Art Quarter Budapest, Hungary
2024 - Gazing Into Darkness, Inda Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2023 - Gazing Into Darkness, Szent István Király Múzeum, Székesfehérvár, Hungary
2022 - USA Diary, Miskolci Galéria, Miskolc, Hungary
2021 - Souvenir, MANK Gallery, Szentendre, Hungary
2020 - USA Diary, Inda Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2019 - Bijinga, 4D Gallery, Galanta, Slovakia.
2018 - The Drawing Experience / Birgit Knoechl - Gàbor Koòs, Galerie Kunst und Handel, Vienna, Austria.
2018 - Văii Morilor, Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.
2017 - Unfolded Territories, Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.
2015 - 20 year old forest, Kostka Gallery, Meetfactory, Prague, Czech Republic.
2014 - Budapest Diary, SODA Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia.
2013 - Budapest Diary, Napóleon Ház, Győr, Hungary.
2010 - Heores and Mares, CD Fű kultúrpince, Budapest, Hungary.
2009 - Man + Woman, Füleki Városi Múzeum, Filakovo, Slovakia.


GROUP EXHIBITIONS


2025

  • What we believe in - Esterhazy Art Award, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary

  • Only Friends, Art Quarter Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

2024

  • Silence of the body, K6 gallery, Budapest Museum of Ethnography, Budapest, Hungary

  • Parallel Worlds, INDA Gallery, Budapest, Hungary

  • Summertime, INDA Galéria, Budapest

2023

  • Suttogó Föld / Whispering Land, Jerusalem Biennale, Museum of Ethnography, Budapest, Hungary

  • Emlékezetes Ábránd / Memorable Fancy, AQB Project Space, Budapest, Hungary

  • Első félidő, INDA Galéria, Budapest

  • Lokart festival, Zsolnay negyed, Pécs, Hungary

  • Lián, Barcsay Terem, Hungarian University of Fine Art, Budapest, Hungary

  • Visszatérés, Vaszary Képtár, Kaposvár, Hungary

2022

  • Incarnations of space, Barcsay terem, Hungarian University of Fine Art, Budapest, Hungary

  • Black Is The Loneliest Color, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Eisenstadt, Austria


2021

  • Esterházy Art Award Short List 2021, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary

  • SEFO 2021 Triennial of Contemporary Central European Art - Universum, Muzeum Umeni Olomouc, Olomouc, CZ

  • MTG 2021 International Print Triennial in Krakow - Dissonant Futures, Nowohuckie Centrum Kultury, Krakow, PL

2019

  • Art Market Budapest, Millenáris, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Touch Wood, Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten (MMKK), Klagenfurt, Austria.

  • NonStopScheiner, www.koier.at, Graz, Austria.

2018

  • Scale, New Budapest Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.

  • If you are manipulated, manipulate back!, Kunstverein Kunsthaus Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.

  • G - Atlas, 4D Gallery, Galanta, Slovakia.

  • The Drawing Obsession, Bruseum, Neue Galerie Graz, Graz, Austria.

2017

  • Esterházy Award 2017, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Pseudo Display, Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Westkunst - Ostkunst. A new collection display, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Autism as a metaphor, ICA-D, Dunaújváros, Hungary, ICA-D, Dunaújváros, Hungary.

  • Amygdala, Miskolci Galéria, Miskolc, Miskolci Galéria, Miskolc, Hungary.

  • XXVI. Miskolc Graphic Triennal, Miskolci Galéria, Miskolc, Hungary, Miskolci Galéria, Miskolc, Hungary.

2016

  • Lapbemutató - Und magazin 2. számának bemutatója, 2B Galéria, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Évi rendes (beszámoló), Hetvennyolcas Galéria, Sopron, Hungary.

  • Atelier - Műterem, Székely Bertalan Műterem- és Emlékház, Szada, Hungary.

  • Akkumulátor | Accumulator, Budapest Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.

2015

  • II.st International Biennal of Drawing and Graphic Arts, Eszterházy Palota, Győr, Hungary.

  • Radical Memories, Chimera-Project, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Art Market Budapest, Millenáris, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Imago Mundi, Map of the New Art, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy.

  • The Power of Place, Chimera-Projetc Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Miskolci Grafikai Triennálék válogatott anyaga, Bánffy Palota, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

  • Derkó2015, Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary.

2014

  • Trauma - Tér - Terápia, Klauzál Square, Budapest, Hungary.

  • 1/1/3 "Selfish", Latarka, Budapest, Hungary.

  • 500+1 Ez európai grafika ünnepe, Műterem Galéria, Debrecen, Hungary.

  • Art Placc 2014, Art Placc/Galéria Placc/Chimera-Project, Tihany, Hungary.

  • XXVI. Miskolc Graphic Triennal, Miskolci Galéria, Miskolc, Hungary.

  • The Future is Today, ICA-D, Institute of Contemporary Art - Dunaújváros, Dunaújváros, Hungary.

  • 1/1/2, FUGA, Budapest, Hungary.

  • derkó.pécsi.2014, Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Enter/ing - New members of FKSE, FKSE, Budapest, Hungary.

2013

  • Art Market Budapest, Millenáris, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Extension, Chimera-Project, Budapest, Hungary.

  • 1/1, Art IX - XI Galéria, Budapest, Hungary.

  • II.st International Biennal of Drawing and Graphic Arts, Eszterházy Palota, Győr, Hungary.

  • Fingerprints, Chimera-Project, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Derkovits Most, Műcsarnok, Budapest, Hungary.

2012

  • Barcsay Application, MKE, Budapest, Hungary.

  • World Day of Architecture, Association of Hungarian Architects, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Friss 2012 Empathy/Manipulation, Kogart Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Best of Diploma 2012, MKE, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Graphic Open 2012, MKE, Budapest, Hungary.

2011

  • I.st International Biennal of Drawing and Graphic Arts, Győr, Győr, Hungary.

  • XXV. Miskolc Graphic Triennal, Miskloci Galéria, Miskolc, Hungary.

  • Magyarok - Wengry, Jan Matejko Academy Of Fine Art in Krakow, Krakow, Poland.

  • Barcsay Application, MKE, Budapest, Hungary.

2010

  • I.st Szekler's Graphic Biennal, Saint George, Saint George, Romania.

  • 42th International Art Colony Győr, Győr, Győr, Hungary.

  • Before Degree, Nyíregyháza, Nyíregyháza, Hungary.

  • 100+3, Zalaegerszeg, Zalaegerszeg, Hungary.

2009

  • Flower Petals Bird Wings, MKE, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Water and Life, Baja, Baja, Hungary.

  • Barcsay Application, MKE, Budapest, Hungary.

2008

  • Small Graphic Forms, Újpest Géria, Budapest, Hungary.

  • +- 100 year, Mission art gallery, Budapest, Hungary.