11 February – 1 March 2016
about the exhibition
Sophia Szilagyi is a printmaker who uses digital printmaking to create scenes of re-interpreted memory and experience. In her multilayered compositions, Sophia explores the relationship between fiction and non-fiction, challenging our perceptions of reality and the effects of physical sensations and emotional response to memory. Her process begins with an impression of a certain painting, personal photograph or experience which is then combined and overlapped with images from a variety of sources, creating a composition of real and imagined experiences. This seamless layering is achieved through digital technology, giving her the freedom to juxtapose and combine images to create the desired mood and expression. In her last exhibition, Sophia drew her inspiration from the sea and the coast, exploring the dualities and intersections between light and dark, earth and ocean. Of this new series of prints. Marguerite Brown, writer and curator, notes that they “reveal a visible shift toward a lighter, gentler and roomier conception of the universe. While the unsettling darkness still exists, it is uplifting to view Szilagyi’s fictional realms filtered through a flood of light and colour.” Through all of her prints, Sophia seeks to capture a sense of the wonder, fear, beauty and, sometimes, danger that exists in both nature and imagination.
Sophia Szilagyi graduated with first class honours from the School of Art and Culture at RMIT in 2000. Since graduating, Sophia has held a number of solo shows as well as participating in many group exhibitions across Australia. Her work has been selected in numerous print awards including the Fremantle Print Prize (2007) and the Banyule Award for Works on Paper (2007, 2009 and 2011). In 2005, Sophia was commissioned to complete a work for the Print Council of Australia and her work is represented in collections including Artbank, Burnie Regional Art Museum, La Trobe Regional Art Gallery, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Queensland University of Technology and the State Library of Victoria.
