Szabolcs Bozó: Must You Dance

2022.7.9 - 2022.10.9

M WOODS 798


M WOODS is proud to announce the first solo museum exhibition world-wide by Hungarian artist Szabolcs Bozó (b.1992). The exhibition “Must You Dance” will present the artist’s most recent works, including paintings, works on paper and site-specific multi-panel painting installations and sculptures. 


“My characters are like forms to me. It’s the randomness of them that I like – the more ridiculous or outlandish they are, the better.”                                                         —Szabolcs Bozó


Born in 1992 in Pécs, Hungary, Szabolcs Bozó has risen to become one of the most promising European artists of his generation with his cartoon-ish, playful and highly individualistic artistic style. For Bozó, art is a form of spontaneous expression that springs from his personal experience, allowing him to develop a distinctive visual language which is free from the constraints of formal painterly composition.



Must You Dance, 2022
Oil, acrylic, spray paint and oil stick on canvas
200 x 210 cm


Must You Dance (detail), 2022
Oil, acrylic, spray paint and oil stick on canvas
200 x 210 cm


With a bold use of primary colours, his whimsical characters are imbued with anthropomorphic features - googly eyes, toothy smiles, goofy jiggles and dances – that have their roots in his favourite childhood cartoon shows, comics and books growing up in Hungary in the 1990s, a period which saw a creative explosion in the animation studios in Budapest and beyond.



The Oasis, 2022
Oil, acrylic, spray paint and oil stick on canvas
200 x 210 cm

The Oasis (detail), 2022
Oil, acrylic, spray paint and oil stick on canvas
200 x 210 cm


In fact, his childhood memories and past experiences are key to Bozó’s art. His favourite Hungarian animation and children’s books were full of local folklore, mythology and dark humour, an aesthetic and cultural context that was distinctly different from their American/Western counterparts of that time. A break dancer in his teens, his innate understanding of the dynamic movement of the body in space and a sense of wild physical energy is explicitly apparent in the gestural and rhythmic brushstrokes in his canvases.



The Projection, 2022
Oil, acrylic,spray paint and oil stick on canvas
200 x 255 cm


The Projection (detail), 2022
Oil, acrylic,spray paint and oil stick on canvas
200 x 255 cm


For his first museum exhibition in China, the artist has also incorporated a special character in his painting - inspired by the most beloved Chinese animation “The Monkey King” - which will be exhibited alongside the original animation designs on paper from the M WOODS collection for the first time.


About the Artist





Szabolcs Bozó (b. 1992, Pécs, Hungary) lives and works in London.Recent solo exhibitions include 'Busójárás (Carnival)', Almine Rech, Brussels; 'The Explorer',Carl Kostyál London; 'Home Again', L21 Palma de Mallorca, Spain (2020); 'Big Bang', Semiose Gallery, Paris (2020); and a two-person show with Richard Woods at L21, Palma de Mallorca, Spain (2019). Group exhibitions include 'Summer Summer Group Show', Ross+Kramer, New York; 'Kawaii', Almine Rech, Shanghai (2021); 'Stockholm Sessions', Carl Kostyál Stockholm (2021); 'Can't Wait to Meet You', Primary Projects, Miami (2021); ABC Gallery, Budapest (2020); ARCO, Madrid (2020); Ramp Gallery, London (2019) and L21 Gallery (2019). Bozó has participated in The North Hill Residency (Pasadena, CA) and L21xCamper Foundation (Mallorca) and will participate in the Carl Kostyál invitational artist residency with Canyon Castator at Mohilef Studios, Los Angeles in 2022.


All images courtesy of Carl Kostyál, London I Stockholm.
© the artist.
Photo by Yuki Shima.