Zsolt József Simon

Zsolt József Simon is a Hungarian-born artist who received his diploma from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest / MOME, formerly the Hungarian University of Art and Design, in 2006. His works have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions around the world and were awarded multiple times, including with First Prize at the Officine Saffi Award (Art category, first edition).

Visit Zsolt József Simon’s website and Instagram page.

Featured work

Selected works, 2013-2021

Zsolt József Simon Ceramics

Artists, similarly to scientists, have the possibility to give form to something that has not taken shape up until now on Earth. At the same time, this freedom is a responsibility. I strive to organize the fight between fragmentation and softness, that can be perceived on my creations, into a beautiful, harmonious unity. My intention is not so much to remind people that everything that seems perfect is perishable at the same time, rather I aim to show that every fault may mean a means of development. Also my technique is based on this. In porcelain mass production, seams mean faults on the surface of the products and the workers try to remove and work them off. I consider these faults (seams) as possibilities from which something new can be created.

In fact, almost all my creations mean a multitude of faults in which faults are developed into beauty in my shaping hands – they really have been transformed and we cannot consider them as something unwanted any more. The traditional products made in factories are buds for me that have not sprouted yet. The bud sprouts and something new grows out of it. This cannot be traced so much in the forms of my works rather in the technology itself. Even when I carve my plaster moulds, I envisage how the fluid porcelain will flow out through the rifts and settle in the desired form. This technique also contains numerous possibilities; however, I merged into only some of them. I have started working with those where I anticipated the greatest beauty and mystery.

Excerpt from Asian Curator, 2020