13 September – 1 November, 2025
Exhibition
Szabolcs Veres
As Back Then
September 13 - November 1, 2025
Spencer Brownstone Gallery is pleased to present As back then, the gallery’s third solo exhibition by Romanian painter Szabolcs Veres.
This new body of work draws from photographs taken by Veres of friends and family throughout their everyday lives. The pictures capture candid moments and unguarded expressions of youth – earnest, eager, often bored. Central to the exhibition is Boy in Stream where a boy gazes at his reflection in water. His head is lowered and his expression hidden. The Narcissus of today appears tired and aloof.
In Young Painters, two students play a game, still in their painting aprons unabashed by their teacher’s gaze. And in another, a contemporary element emerges in a Boy with Phone, marking what Veres sees as a new direction of fascination and alienation in our development.
Through the making of these paintings, the artist reflects on his own youth, creating an unexpected dialogue between present observation and memory. A personal archaeology that he attributes to his development as an artist and adult.
Shedding more fantastical elements from past work and embracing the immediacy of his subject matter, Veres presents a meditation on memory, innocence, and the passage from childhood to adulthood.
Artist Bio
Szabolcs Veres is a painter born in Satu Mare, Romania, and currently working and living in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He received his PhD, MFA, and BFA at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Veres has had solo exhibitions at Spencer Brownstone Gallery, NY; Galerie Martin Kudlek, Cologne, Germany; at Bazis - The Paintbrush Factory, Cluj Romania and Galeria Radio Cluj, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He had a solo booth presentation at Zona Maco, Mexico City with Spencer Brownstone Gallery. His work has been featured in several group exhibitions in New York, Romania, Germany, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, and Italy.