The Calm before the Storm, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2023.
The Calm before the Storm, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2023.
The Calm before the Storm, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2023.
The Calm before the Storm, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2023.
The Calm before the Storm, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2023.
The Calm before the Storm, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2023.
The Calm before the Storm, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2023.
MIRA MAKAI
Upside Down, 2023
Glazed ceramic
42 x 40 x 34 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Score Tied, 2023
Glazed ceramic relief
70 x 100 x 5 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Fight Against The Divine Beast, 2023
Glazed ceramic relief
70 x 150 x 5 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Witch Doctor, 2023
Glazed ceramic
45 x 45 x 60 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Fortune Teller, 2023
Glazed ceramic
40 x 40 x 40 cm
Mira Makai is an artist who plays, who creates her pieces intuitively, without defining the final result from the outset. This fact endows her figures with an almost magical quality, turning them into small inanimate beings that, paradoxically, seem about to perform some action when one observes them. These ceramic characters make up Makai’s artistic universe, in which she has found her own language inspired by mythology and rituality, creating pieces with extravagant shapes and bright colors.
Makai exhibits again at L21 with the solo show “The Calm before the Storm”, presenting a set of artworks that can be interpreted separately or as part of a thematic installation that the artist refers to as “Sacrifice for the Wisest”. The sculptures trigger sensations that can be contradictory. They are pleasant but also disturbing, as well as changing, since they evoke different emotions depending on the angle from where we observe them.
The scene is part of a fictional story, without beginning or end, in which Makai invites us to ask questions that may help us to find an end to this story. The artist’s imagination and own experiences meet those of the viewer to shape a story that can be told in different voices. In this open story, the leader (the piece titled “Witch Doctor”), stands in the middle of the pedestal, while the other characters surround and worship him or her. From the titles of the exhibition and this installation, we can deduce that something is about to happen. Something dramatic maybe? Something transformative, or even transcendental? All scenarios are open.
Makai has once again taken inspiration from rituals, magic, and mythology to shape this project. These are themes that have always been present in art, and through the artist’s imagination they become more real and contemporary. Don’t we all follow a series of rituals in our day to day? We follow routines, we adore figures, and we venerate objects. Michael Pollan explains: “People have traditionally turned to ritual to help them frame and acknowledge and ultimately even find joy in just such a paradox of being human – in the fact that so much of what we desire for our happiness and need for our survival comes at a heavy cost[1]”. In this incessant search for meaning, filled with contradictions, art has a special place. Welcome to the perfect storm!
Cristina Molina
[1] Pollan, Michael. “A Place of MY Own. The Architecture of Daydream”. (2008). Penguin Group.
EN / ES
Chambers of melting sweets, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Chambers of melting sweets, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Chambers of melting sweets, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Chambers of melting sweets, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Chambers of melting sweets, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Chambers of melting sweets, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Chambers of melting sweets, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
Chambers of melting sweets, solo exhibition by Mira Makai. Installation view at L21 Gallery, 2022.
MIRA MAKAI
Smiling Guardian, 2022
Glazed ceramic relief
70 x 50 x 5 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Night Shift, 2022
Glazed ceramic relief
70 x 50 x 5 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Cat Fight, 2022
Glazed ceramic relief
70 x 50 x 5 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Collecting, 2022
Glazed ceramic relief
70 x 50 x 5 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Magic, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
235 x 200 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Wise Guardian, 2022
Glazed ceramic
100 x 40 x 40 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Fisherman’s Dream, 2022
Glazed ceramic
100 x 40 x 40 cm
MIRA MAKAI
Palma Boogie, 2022
Glazed ceramic
100 x 40 x 40 cm
Since ancient times, people have tried to find ways to evade from the world around us. It has always given us great satisfaction to leave the mundane and venture into unknown worlds, either through a good tale, a song, a theater play, a poem, a movie… All these genuinely human manifestations are just more or less sophisticated developments of the first stories told by our prehistoric ancestors around the fire, which brought back to life the exciting adventures of the last hunt to the other members of the tribe.
One of the most recent forms that the art of storytelling has taken in our society is that of video games. Here the passive viewer is turned into an active player and can freely intervene in the events that take place through the different levels that comprise the game’s story. These virtual adventures inspire Mira Makai (Budapest, Hungary, 1990) to such an extent that the creation of her own fictional universe has become the main focus of her artistic practice.
The artist’s first solo exhibition at L21 Gallery titled “Chambers of Melting Sweets”, allows us to venture into this imaginary world and, through a series of sculptures, ceramic reliefs and paintings, meet the heroes and monsters that inhabit it. For instance, “Palma Boogie” is a three-piece ceramic totem that perfectly embodies Makai’s work. Shapes that refer to the mythology of ancient times merge with the use of vivid colours and grotesque smiles, distancing them from their sublime nature. Other characters seem to be engaged in a battle for something that the artist describes as The Divine Ball, “a treasure that they will try to obtain and protect at all costs”.
Before each battle there is silence, a silence that allows us to process what is about to happen and to get ready for it. This exhibition is intended to invite the viewer to enter a unique place where they can be at rest before facing their daily lives.
Enrique Suasi
EN / ES
Mira Makai (b.1990, Budapest, Hungary) is an artist based in Budapest. Makai works across ceramic, acrylic painting, and oil pastel drawings. Moving away from the world of organic abstraction that previously characterized her works, she found a new home in a world of hybrid-like, magnified comic book miniatures intertwining of mythological and Pop culture influences.
Her works have been presented in several group exhibitions in museums and non-profit exhibition spaces like Hungarian National Museum, Küntslerhaus KM Graz, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Modern and Contemporary Arts Centre (MODEM) Debrecen. She also exhibited her creatures with art galleries in different cities of the European countries and art fairs, Art+Text Budapest, Susan Boutwell Gallery Münich, and Galerie Droste in Berlin, Viennacontemporary in Vienna. Her works can be seen in Esterhazy Private Collection and the Janus Pannonius Museum’s ceramic collection. An Esterhazy Art Award winner.
Mira Makai (b. 1990, Budapest, Hungary)
Lives and works in Budapest
EDUCATION
2011 – 2016
MA Degree in Printmaking, Hungarian University of fine Arts (HU)
2014 – 2015
Summer Semester. Akademie der Bildenden Künste München (DE)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
The Calm before the Storm. L21 Barcelona, Barcelona (ESP)
2022
Chambers of melting sweets. L21 Palma, Palma de Mallorca (ESP)
2021
Dodgeball. Artkartell Projectspace, Budapest (HU)
2020
Treasure Hunt, Four Rooms Gallery, Budapest (HU)
Keramik und Grafik. Susan Boutwell Gallery, Munich (DE)
2018
Unseen creatures, Art+Text Gallery, Budapest (HU)
2016
Glaze and gut, solo with Adam Dallos, Art+Text Gallery, Budapest (HU)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
CA’N BOOM!. L21 Gallery and Ca’n Marquès, Palma (ES)
Entre Cajas. L21 Home, Palma (ES)
2022
L21 Broadcasting from Paris. JPS Gallery, Paris (FR)
Portraits and monochromes. ARTUAL, Beirut (LBN)
Eating a vegan sandwich on the train while listening to country music. L21 LAB, Palma de Mallorca (ES)
Grand Opening. Galerie Droste, Paris (FR)
2021
Chronicles III. Galerie Droste x KPM, Berlin (DE)
Inseln des Glücks. Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Berlin (DE)
2018
Time of our lives?. MODEM Modern and Contemporary Arts Centre, Debrecen (HU)
Diamonds in the rough. Art Mill, Szentendre (HU)
V4 Art Connects: Structures / Illusions / Interactions. Mikve, Budapest (HU)
Leona Tobien and Mira Makai Ceramics. Susan Boutwell Gallery, Munich (DE)
2017
Real Hungary, Collegium Hungaricum Wien (AT)
Abstract Hungary, Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz (AT)
Graphic Triennal Miskolc- XXVII., Miskolc Gallery, Miskolc (HU)
II. National Ceramic Quadriennal, Modern Magyar Képtár, Pécs (HU)
2015
Esterhazy Art Award 2015, Hungarian National Museum, Budapest (HU)
ART FAIRS
2023
CAN ART IBIZA 2023. L21 Gallery, Ibiza (ES)
ARCO 23. L21 Gallery, Madrid (ES)
2022
UNTITLED ART. L21 Gallery, Miami (US)
SWAB 22. L21 Gallery, Barcelona (ES)
ARCO 22. L21 Gallery, Madrid (ES)
2021
UNTITLED ART. L21 Gallery, Miami (US)
ARCO 21. L21 Gallery, Madrid (ES)