Opinion
Soulmate in NEO Budapest: the emotional and joyful universe of Szabolcs Bozó
The Soulmate exhibition, curated by Zsolt Petrányi , Head of the Department of Contemporary Art at the Hungarian National Gallery, can be visited at NEO Budapest from May 29 to September 7, 2025. It is a collaboration between the Museum of Fine Arts, the Hungarian National Gallery and Carl Kostyál , and immerses us in the colorful and expressive world of Hungarian artist Szabolcs Bozó , whose animal creatures are full of life, humor and emotion.
At first glance, his works seem simple: smiling animals with big eyes and bright colors, as if they came from a series of cartoons. This has led his art to be associated with what some call “cute-ism”, a style that feeds on childish aesthetics. But reducing his painting to what is “cute” or “adorable” is to stay on the surface. Bozó is part of a much deeper artistic tradition, which crosses centuries of art history. For millennia, artists have used animals to talk about ourselves. In the Japanese tradition, the famous Chōjū-giga scrolls of the 12th century showed frogs and rabbits in human situations, such as fights or celebrations. In Europe, figures such as Bosch depicted grotesque creatures to criticize the sins and fears of society. Later, Goya gave shape to animals laden with anxiety or irony, creating disturbing but deeply human worlds.
During the 20th century, animals with human features became common in children's stories, but there were also artists who explored their emotional dimension. In Hungary, Dezső Mokry-Mészáros imagined happy beings on distant planets, while Menyhért Tóth created animal portraits that spoke of the human soul. These works went far beyond the decorative: they were visual metaphors for how we feel and relate. Bozó continues this line, but with a contemporary perspective. He often talks about his childhood, the Hungarian cartoons he saw, or the figures he drew on napkins while working in the hospitality industry in London. At first they were personal doodles, made for fun. But when he decided to enlarge them and paint them on a large scale, they became something else. The size gave them strength. The characters were no longer cute little sketches: they were protagonists. Their faces, their exaggerated gestures, occupied the entire canvas, almost overflowing it. A clear example is Dancing Bears, a work in which two lilac bears appear dancing together. At first glance it is funny and cheerful. But the way their bodies relate and how their expressions connect gives rise to a tender, almost intimate scene. Bozó manages to make a seemingly innocent moment convey something deeper.
Although in his early works Bozó focused on a single figure per painting, in recent years he has been creating richer compositions, with several characters on stage. They are situations full of movement, in which animals interact, cross paths, share space. There is dynamism, humor and also a certain emotional tension. The scenes seem to show unexpected encounters or situations shared between strangers, as if all the characters were forced to solve something together.
The title of the exhibition, Soulmate, comes from one of his works. In it, another artist wrote this word about one of Bozó 's characters, and that spontaneous gesture gave rise to a new reading. His creatures, with their open eyes and exaggerated gestures, not only make us smile: they invite us to connect. They remind us of the stuffed animals we played with as children, those "soulmates" with whom we shared emotions, stories and secrets. This emotional connection is key in Bozó 's art. His paintings make us think of childhood, of imagination, of the desire to live in a kinder world. His animals are not just cute: they are portraits of how we feel, of how we relate to others, of what we miss.
At NEO Budapest , Bozó 's universe completely surrounds us. His creatures look at us, challenge us, and seem to invite us to cross over to the other side, to their world. A joyful world, yes, but also full of questions, emotions and shared memories.
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