What Does It Mean to be Gabor Szoke?

Gabor Szoke lives in a world of boundless creativity; every creation is an invitation to explore the extraordinary within ourselves.

Tatiana Zabora

Updated 09:13 pm EST, December 28, 2024

Published 01:09 am EST, December 12, 2024

Photography by Mate Gregus

Art

What Does It Mean to be Gabor Szoke?

Gabor Szoke lives in a world of boundless creativity; every creation is an invitation to explore the extraordinary within ourselves.

Tatiana Zabora

Updated 09:13 pm EST, December 28, 2024

Published 01:09 am EST, December 12, 2024

Photography by Mate Gregus

It happened by an accident during my long-awaited summer trip to Europe, where I was planning to spend over a month visiting multiple cities and art venues including Art Basel in Swiss, and reunite with my family by the end of it.

Our Art Editor Tatiana Zabora meets with Gabor Szoke

That night I am, my mother and aunt arrived at one of the most elegant historical 5-star hotels in Budapest, the Paris Udvar, for a piano evening that was hosted by a friend of mine. July was unusually hot and it seemed to me that no one was in a rush to leave this musical oasis that offered a gourmet atmosphere and escape from the summer heat at the same time.

We were about to leave when I met Kata. And this is how a week after I appeared in the studio of one of the most influential contemporary sculptors of our time, Gabor Szoke. Once you’re introduced to Gabor’s art world you will never be able to forget it. Not to mention that you will never mix it up with anyone else’s art.

Gabor Szoke is known as the author of gigantic animal public sculptures crafted from wood and stainless steel. The Atlanta Falcon, Lions of the Sky, The Clash, Miraculous Deer, The Totem, and The Builders are just a small part of the list of his creations located around the globe. Add a touch of mysticism and mystery of The Dante Empire — the mythology of The Lord Dante, a Doberman who became the central figure in his earlier works—and you will uncover Szoke’s essence.

Despite his young age, his name is famous on 3 continents and you can find nearly 100 of his unique artworks in cities such as Washington DC, Atlanta, Moscow, Brussels, Milan, Rome, Munich, Athens, Budapest, and many others around the globe. Due to the enormous scale of his installations, he holds the record for the largest avian sculpture in the world as his recent Atlanta Falcon, which he created for the new Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA. to highlight the Superball even exceeds it with a 70 ft wingspan.

What does it mean to be Gabor Szoke?

It’s an easy and complex question. I am an artist… I’m thinking about it…

How would you identify yourself?

Gabor Szoke is a quite reserved boy who communicates though his sculptures with the world.

How old are you right now?

In September I’ll be 40.

Were you born here in Budapest?

Yes.

Tell me about your family and your childhood.

My parents were lawyers and very passionate about art. I have a sister who’s also an artist, photographer, and graphic designer. My father wanted to be a sculptor but my grandfather didn’t like the idea. He didn’t allow him to be an artist, so my father became a lawyer. But he loved sculpting. At that time I saw him drawing, making stuff, destroying things, and rebuilding something new from them.

When I was 7 years old, I started learning drawing and attended the Budapest Drawing school. I remember after the lessons my mother and I visited a lot of museums, especially the fine art museum that I loved the most. One of my memories is how my grandparents from my mother’s side lived in the countryside, more than 300 kilometers away, close to the Ukrainian border.

They had a lot of different animals: Horses, cows, and chickens. My great-grandfather was a Hungarian Hussar and teacher at the military academy, and my family used to breed horses at that historical time. So when I was a child, I spent a lot of time with horses. I learned how they move and how they connect to people. It was a very influential period, as my first draws were just horses and their movements.

Who or what influenced you the most when you were a kid?

At home, it was my father. But my mother also took me to a lot of places and museums. My both parents recognized that I loved drawing, painting, and sculpturing and they let me have this joy. At the same time, I was very inspired by classical heroes in public squares, the monumental statues of the heroes here in Budapest, and paintings of the 19th century.

When did it become clear that you were going to be a sculptor?

I started to go to a Hungarian fine arts secondary school. I had to choose a furniture Design class, as I forgot about the deadline and there was no place left in Sculpture, Painting or Graphic Design, so this is how I started to learn how to design furniture.

I was 15 years old and it was okay in the beginning, but very fast it became boring as we learned a lot of engineering and were drawing a lot of straight lines. I had a classmate who learned sculpting at that time.

So after a while, we came up with a plan of how I would swap a class to be a sculpting student. Later, I recognized that it was a blessing. After 5 years, when I got my degree, I went automatically to the sculpting class at the University of Fine Arts in Budapest and later studied for half a year In Italy at the Academia di Belle Arti di Brera, in Milano.

Our Art Editor Tatiana Zabora meets with Gabor Szoke

A very common struggle of emerging artists is to find their identity. Did you ever struggle to find your signature style?

In the beginning, I learned mostly classic, academic art and I loved it. I mastered the basics of classical sculpture, as such as anatomy, modeling, carving, bronze casting. I gained experience working with different materials, stones, and metals. Once I went to the summer art camp at university. That day I forgot my materials, and because it was a stone camp I couldn’t make any sculptures from stone. So I was just walking and looking around and felt a little bit bored.

Suddenly I kicked something on the grass. It was a bunch of wooden planks left from construction. I found it interesting and instantly I noticed a wild boar like creature in it. I brought the construction leftovers and I begin to wire the big planks together. I worked quickly and roughly, the slats turned into sketches drawn in the air. Eventually, I recognized the whole creature, the face, the back, and some legs. And it became the first big step of my journey.

Our Art Editor Tatiana Zabora meets with Gabor Szoke

Where do you find your inspiration? And what do you do during creative slumps? How do you overcome the moments when you feel that you’re stuck?

I like to travel, but I also like to stay at home. Inspiration comes to me from everywhere. It can come from nature, history, animals, or places. I like taking photos, sketching, or taking notes. But things fall into place when I need to plan the sculpture or work on different projects. The first thing that draws my inspiration is when I have to provide many ideas for one concept. For example, when I made my first sculpture at art camp, I recognized that it was a new way of sculpting my new ideas and this moment created my new identity, my new style. It was the real me.

I remember when I bought my Doberman, Dante, I found a lot of interesting things about the dog and this is how the new very important process started. I developed my new style in this process. And when it was done I ended up writing and drawing a Mythology of Dante.

Speaking about Dante. Last time we met, I noticed that you have a lot of art objects of Dante. I learned that Dante is the whole world: A series of installations, sculptures, paintings, a furniture line, music, and a lot more. Tell me more about him and why this mysterious dog became such a powerful influencer on your artistic path and a hero of multiple artworks.

I don’t know exactly why, but he appeared at the right time in the right place. Dante was my second personality. In the first place, he was a typical dog. He went to a dog school but it wasn’t successful because he was a little bit crazy. He was quite a big dog, a funny one, but a little bit dangerous. Serious at the same time.

I liked this contrast, these two different sides of him. The nature of Dante was very ancient. Sometimes, when he slept on the carpet, his shape with the motives of the carpet was very similar to the head of Egyptian Anubis. When I recognized this, I started to draw a story of Dante’s Empire. How he became the emperor of the New World and made a new style, made a new empire, about his friends and enemies…

And the first sculpture of him that I created was made with mixed plastic bottles and foam. I just wanted to learn the material as it wasn’t a classic one. When I finished I didn’t like it at all. It was terrible. I got angry and I started to destroy it. At first, I put it under the sofa and destroyed the shapes. And, after I recognized that it was not enough, I took it to the street and drove it over with my car. After that, it looked like a mummified dog, it was very, very dirty. However, I noticed that it had interesting textures on the surface. But it still was not enough, so I decided to use fire.

Did you burn it?

I burned it. This is when the plastic material changes its shape and texture and becomes smoking. I made holes, many holes in Dante’s body, and from the smoke that was coming from the holes I recognized that it was the soul of Dante.

I’m curious, how much did you sell it for?

It was an exchange. I had an exhibition in one of Milano’s galleries. They were very kind and also it was a very good gallery, so we made an exchange.

What was the biggest proposal that you ever received for your work and what artwork was it?

It’s quite challenging to highlight one particular project, as many of my sculptures were the biggest from various reasons. For instance for my Totem, 10 tons of fallen antlers were collected in all Hungarian forests for two years, the Atlanta Falcon is the largest avian sculpture in the world, it took almost half a year to build just the statue part in the USA. One of my recent sculpture, the Lions of the Sky is a huge, 65.6 feet wide, hanging installation made from 9 million stainless steel coins.

Do you consider yourself successful?

Yes! Mostly the last years were a success. I had a lot of great experiences. I got published a lot, created a lot of artworks, had multiple exhibitions, built a studio that attracted Hollywood icons, brought my team together, and created my lab.

Do you think that success changed you?

Yes and no… I don’t know….. I’m thinking.

Could you name what success brought into your life? What was the change or how did it impact you?

Depends on what success is. Success could be an achievement and expansion of the network and doing the business, and I loved it. But time can change a lot of things. I think that success is just a moment. A happy moment. And is not too necessary in my life. Some things are much more necessary for my life like making art. Sometimes success and happiness are not necessary as they are temporary. I can rarely be satisfied, but as I get older I can be grateful for more and more small things.

If everything was possible and you could use a time machine to collaborate with any artist that was ever born, who would you choose to collaborate with and why?

It’s an interesting question. I would choose a human that was born thousands of years ago. A human who does not have an artist’s name. Just a human from the initial times of cave painting. They were the very first artists and played a very important role. For example, they showed the hunting scenes during the times when humans had to survive every day. And in my opinion, these arts were the most beautiful in human history.

What is the legacy that you would want to leave behind? How would you like people to remember you?

Public work is an interesting topic. If you are a painter it’s different… But if you are a public sculptor who is exposed to the public eye… It’s a big responsibility. It is a little bit scary from one side but also very liberating feeling, that I can share a part of myself with a wider audience who will resonate with it as these public works became part of their everyday life. I speak with multiple generations through my art.

As our conversation flowed, I caught myself thinking about how Gabor Szoke’s journey is not just about personal success. I felt that between the lines lies a heartfelt mission to evoke connections that empower and inspire. I also reflected on the powerful energy of his art and how it transcends mere visual experience, challenging our perceptions and drawing us into deep conversations. So you may ask me, what does it mean to be Gabor Szoke? I’ll answer that it means to live in a world where creativity knows no bounds and every creation is an invitation to explore the extraordinary within ourselves.