A piece of art or a puzzle made of art pieces? How about both. Using a palette of secondary colors, linear shapes and simple interior compositions, Zsofia Schweger Block Paintings are as interactive as they are appealing. Painted lasercut wood pieces fit together, held in place by a frame, to form a simplistic, colorful image that can be assembled and re-assembled.
Zsofia Schweger Block Paintings
The Hungarian artist, who lives in London, works in several different sizes ranging from large acrylic paintings to small collages. While her choice of subject matter rarely varies from room interiors, her depictions do and it’s her series of block paintings that stand out for me amongst her repertoire. Inspired by the educational children’s blocks by Froebel, these assembled artworks (she calls the series Form Becoming Feeling) are the artist’s attempts at deconstructing and reconstructing her own compositions, finding new arrangements, patterns and meaning.
At first glance they look like float-framed paintings of cartoon-like school rooms or even parts of The Simpsons house, but the underlying meaning hints at alienation and spatial confinement.
“This potentially interactive viewer experience is informed by Froebel’s kindergarten gifts, an early childhood education tool, of which I learned through Frank Lloyd Wright’s work. I encountered Froebel blocks for the first time at the Wright Home & Studio, where they were on display. Wright claimed that his childhood exposure to Froebel blocks deeply influenced his approach to architecture, especially regarding geometric patterns and ornamentation. My assemblage-paintings attempt to de- and reconstruct my own compositions, potentially discovering new arrangements, patterns and meanings.”- Zsofia Schweger
Interior spaces devoid of human figures are populated with lasercut wood chairs, bookcases, desks, sofas and are then framed in wood or mounted on plexi.
About the artist (from her site):
Zsofia Schweger (b. 1989, Szeged) is a Hungarian artist based in London. Zsofia had lived in the US for 5 years and studied at Wellesley College in the Boston area, before she moved to London in 2013. She then attended the Slade School of Fine Art, graduating with an MA in 2015.
Zsofia’s work in painting is informed by her experience of moving countries: she is interested in human relationships to spaces in general and the notions of home and belonging in particular. In her paintings of domestic and public interiors, Zsofia uses reductive paint application, flat panels of colour and a muted palette in order to express a sense of both alienation and comfort.
Zsofia was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016 and Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2017. She has been supported by several generous prizes, including the Jealous Prize, Griffin Art Prize, the Alice C. Cole Award, and the ‘One To Watch’ Award. Since her first solo exhibition at Griffin Gallery in London in 2016, she has had solo shows at Edel Assanti (London), Sapar Contemporary (New York), Lundgren Gallery (Palma), Inda Gallery (Budapest) and Rutger Brandt Gallery (Amsterdam). Her first institutional solo exhibition was held in 2022 at Romer Floris Muzeum in Gyor, Hungary.
Zsofia’s work is represented by Sapar Contemporary (New York) and Inda Gallery (Hungary).
Follow her on Instagram @zsofiaschweger
Zsofia Schweger
Framing by @thetrayframer
Photos by @digitaliskepmuhely