Imre Bukta

Imre Bukta, a self-taught artist, debuted in the 1970s when he returned to the village of his birth. Since his exhibition in Budapest in 1978, he has been a regular participant of exhibitions in Hungary and in abroad. In the eighties and nineties, he was part of the Szentendre Workshop, an artist group working in Szentendre, close to Budapest. He showed twice in the Hungarian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale (1988, 1999). In 2012, the Műcsarnok (Palace of Art) in Budapest organized a retrospective exhibition of his work.
His works always deal with the culture and life of his immediate surroundings in rural Hungary: with agriculture, hard physical work, the simple pleasures, and subtle absurdities. He conveys these experiences by using the most diverse materials (hair, wood, maize, tiles, matches, etc.) and found objects of rural life, creating images, assemblages, installations, performances, or disfuntional machines. While his works show a sociological interest, his approach is never scientific or reserved; sharing their lifestyle and difficulties, he treats his subjects with empathy and mild irony. In the nineties, his work became more bitter with transcendental ovetones.