The frequently cited prototype of the works of Márton Nemes is the exaggerated atmosphere of techno culture and the everyday urban life, which means not only disconnection but also an escape for him. When the artist moved to London in 2017, his image surfaces were inspired by the spirit and pulsation of illegal warehouse parties across the city. At the opening exhibition of the Double Q Gallery, the artist presents a brand new collection of works, the Hong Kong Painting series, adjusted explicitly to the gallery space. The paintings of the Hong Kong Painting series have been inspired by the dazzling size and number of skyscrapers of the "city floating in the sky" that even exceed the multitude of New York and its ongoing architectural expansion. In Nemes's words, "I am amazed by how Hong Kong is constantly growing in its geographically available space by penetrating deeper and deeper underground and higher and higher towards the sky".
In order to go beyond the constraints of two dimensions, he arranged the image surfaces formerly inspired by electronic (techno, rave) music into installations and complemented them with various light and musical effects. In his latest Hong Kong Painting series, individual image surfaces are accumulated in opposition to their prior installation expansion. Instead of expanding the surface of the paintings in space and arranging them into installations, this time, Nemes operates by stacking (accumulating) the layers within the given image spaces. Furthermore, he also changes the former order of the layers composed on top of each other. The reflective plexiglass and steel surfaces previously used, almost without exception on the surface of the paintings, have moved from the foreground to the rear, underlying image space. The reflecting surfaces recessed from the foreground into the background are surrounded by a mesh-like cage of steel plates, which is composed in front of the image spaces, thus, Nemes locked the individual image spaces into a cage of steel gestures.
As a result of the layering, Nemes operates not only with the negative and positive spaces that emerge from the surfaces but also with the "emptiness" composed between the reflective background and the foreground abundant in colours, due to which an actual physical image depth is created in the individual image spaces, which is strengthened compositionally by the reflective effect of the background. The visually almost overgrown surfaces echo the urban ambience in the layers of heights and depths, supplemented with art historical references also related to urban life, such as the use of aerosol in graffiti art, or even the artistic power of gesture, repainting or destruction, in connection with which the postcards of Gerhardt Richter, one of the greatest masters of painting in the 20th century, provided a prototype and inspiration for Nemes.
— Mónika Zsikla
