Red Flowers and Buddha, 2017

Zoltan Gerliczki  

From the series "Still Life". Archival Pigment Print   Image size: 31.5 in H x 25.5 in W. Edition of 6 + 2AP Unframed

This evocative artwork blends traditional still life with a touch of surrealism. Central to the composition is a vibrant bouquet of richly colored flowers, predominantly in shades of red and pink, set against a stark black background that heightens their intensity. The petals and leaves appear in dynamic motion, as if caught in a gentle breeze, adding a sense of life and movement. The turquoise vase anchors the piece, its shattered fragments cleverly integrated into the scene, symbolizing fragility amidst beauty. A serene figure, resembling a serene ceramic statue, sits gracefully at the base, exuding a calming presence. This compelling juxtaposition of chaos and tranquility invites contemplation, making the artwork both visually striking and thought-provoking. Each element contributes to a narrative of beauty, impermanence, and the delicate balance between stillness and motion.

As an artist, He is fascinated by the opulence and richness of still life of the golden age of Dutch painting in the 17th c. These works, of course, symbolize mortality and the temporal nature of material goods. In his still life, He built these images with the same symbolic references but with the best quality, you can get. By playing with light and dark, He captures the beauty of every flower and each object down to the smallest detail. In addition to photography, he uses high-resolution scans to achieve extreme detail. He use photography as a base, but in the end, he arrive at an image that nobody could actually shoot as a photograph.

He is not a photographer in the traditional sense, but he does take many pictures and he needs a lot of layers. In his still life of flowers and objects, he creates a balance between objects and living materials with light and shadow and the best quality. He created the photographic illusion of a painting from the golden age in a new tech way by scanning every object individually and combining these with photographs that he took. The construction takes a lot of time and months of post-production. In his work, everything has to be perfect. It's like a movie. The light and color have to be right. (It is quite obsessive work.) He loves the idea of “the impossible image" – the idea of there being no limits and of using the photograph as the basis for an image that's in his head.