The Molesworth is delighted to present Zsolt Basti’s debut solo exhibition at the gallery.
Basti is a painter who uses familiar subjects and locations in his work, before altering and abstracting them. He is interested in memory, how we revise and curate it, in how it disintegrates over time. Through the deft use of colour, his skill as a draughtsman and a core subject often bordering on the uncanny, he hopes to evoke memories in the viewer that may have faded or become distorted. Hence, there is no prescribed narrative in the paintings. They are instead a prism for the viewer’s own stories.
In a feature on this exhibition in the summer 2025 issue of The Irish Arts Review, Francis Halsall writes of Basti that ‘across all of his highly accomplished practice, two things remain constant: a commitment to the medium of painting and a deep concern for humanity. Throughout his meticulous work a balance is struck between realism and abstraction, the particular and the general.’
Halsall notes that the 'paintings offset apparently recognisable and hence potentially intimate subject matter with imagery that is less delineated, distinct or discernible. Despite the use of abstraction as a counterpoint to figuration, the paintings maintain the sharpness, accuracy and confidence of an artist who is always fully in control of his medium.’
A graduate in fine art from IADT, Basti’s previous solo exhibitions include ‘Half Shy’ at the RHA in 2024, where he was also an award winner at the Annual Exhibition in 2022. Other notable group shows include the Zurich Portrait Exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland (2022). Born in Hungary, Basti has been living in Ireland since 2005.