“Still Life, Still Smoking”
Attila Bagi
Still Life, Still Smoking, an exhibition by Attila Bagi, as part of “FIVE PROJECTS” at kunsthalle c/o VUNU
Opening: 15 July, 7 PM at the kunsthalle c/o VUNU,
Rumanova 1, Košice
On view: 16 July - 17 August 2026
Attila Bagi (b. 1991, Debrecen, Hungary) is a painter whose practice reinterprets the tradition of still life through contemporary questions of perception, temporality, and representation. His carefully staged compositions of everyday objects draw on art historical references, from vanitas imagery to Surrealist visual strategies, while incorporating personal motifs that reflect on presence, impermanence, and the act of looking itself.
His recent works reimagine the tradition and medium-specific possibilities of still life representation within the transformed object culture and technological environment of the 21st century. His paintings the reinterpret the longstanding tradition of still-life painting: the arrangement of objects, its tropes, and its scenography. Rather than questioning the relevance of this artistic genre, Bagi’s works explore its potential for tradition-conscious yet innovative evolution. To this end, the artist often pushes objects beyond the boundaries of the picture plane, creating installation-like situations and generating tension between objects and their representations.