attila feszt
biography
Attila Feszt was born in Nassau in 1976 and has drawn for as long as he can remember. He studied in the UK and graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a BA (Hons) in History of Art and Design with Graphic Design in 1999.
His art and design work is an attempt to capture the essence of island life in the Bahamas using original pattern designs, paintings and illustrations inspired by its pristine natural beauty. He uses simple and familiar design elements that translate easily to functional applications.
He combines his passion for drawing, screen-printing, graphic design and comic books, with inspiration from observing the natural world on his home of Hope Town - usually on his way to surf.
He has exhibited throughout the Bahamas including Transforming Spaces 2012, 2014 and 2016, Fash|Art 2012 (where he won the Jackson Burnside Award for Emerging Visual Artists), which led to his inaugural solo show ‘Life on my Island’ at Doongalik Gallery in 2013, and at The National Exhibition: NE8 at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas in 2018. He has had work shown internationally at the Bahamian Embassy in Beijing for the 2013 NAGB/Colina Calendar, and Caribbean: Together Apart as part of the Venice Biennale.
Much of his work is inspired by the motto ‘by reducing the world we make it larger’.
Artist Statement
Having worked with the two dimensional qualities of graphic design, comic book art and screen printing for many years, I have a tendency to look at things around me in a certain way. Reducing those objects around me to clean lines, hard edges and flowing curves I pull out of the landscape defined shapes that by themselves might, for a moment or two, be hard to identify.
In this modern age we are so used to seeing the world around us in it’s almost infinite and sometimes chaotic state, these defined shapes can get lost in the beautiful noise of our lives. To turn a well known idiom around - we can’t see the trees for the woods.
Having lived in the tropical and idyllic paradise that is Hope Town, Bahamas for over a decade, my awareness has more easily been brought into the present. The everlasting moment that continuously stretches out in front of us. An island of slow pace and pristine beauty, it made me pay attention to the natural world around me - the salt air and sometimes vigorous weather, the ocean and it’s varied moods, close encounters with sharks, dolphins, turtles and rays while surfing, the beaches covered in freshly made crab, bird or turtle tracks, the shadows and patterns cast by exotic plants.
My artistic work has been a conscious effort to bring attention to simple objects that are familiar, but presented in a way that bypasses our preconceived notions about what the object is. In that moment of uncertainty as to the identity of the shape or shapes, we see it in it’s purest form. Observing it purely objectively with no distraction of memory.
Shining the spotlight on certain parts of our world makes them stand out against the background. Through illustration, painting, screen printing and exploration of organic shapes and patterns, I seek to present these objects in a way which leads to seeing them with fresh eyes.
Waves to Mountains
In 2022 I moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, swapping out my surfboard for a snowboard. In this new mountainous landscape of peaks and valleys I aim to take the skills I’ve learnt and apply them to new inspirations of not just flora and fauna but the landscape itself. The vastness of the ocean and the vastness of the mountain ranges share similar qualities but at the same time have striking differences which I hope to capture.