be right back (answering the door, perhaps)

"Zsofia Schweger’s works presented here are some of the most detailed and narrative of her work to date. For Schweger, the temporary transition of her practice from a London-based studio to a hybrid-domestic space in Hungary marked a distinct shift in her painterly approach. Rather than leaving the marks on her canvases up to chance, Schweger exercises total control over her depicted environments. Working from these new fabricated scenes, for the first time in her practice Schweger is able to physically, in real time, inhabit and interact with the contexts she depicts. Formally, her paintings invite us in using the diagonals of one-point perspective and a very carefully constructed color scheme. There is inherent contradiction in our lived experience of this new body of work, absence and presence, stillness and movement, expansive space and stark flatness, deep feeling and clear apathy, a warm coziness and ominous dread, all elements of both the private and the social. In her large triptych, Schweger takes on a formal challenge of combining three canvases to create one long composition - one that can be rearranged in any combination, or the paintings can be hung separately, on their own. In her largest work of the show, Be Right Back (Feeding the Dogs, Perhaps), Schweger challenges our sense of scale - grossly exaggerating the size of domestic objects - a chair, cup of coffee, open book - to explore how this will feel for the viewer - a sense of domination, of comedy, or immersion." 

Artworks from this project: