Hajgató Terézia – What’s New on Futrinka Street?

At the centre of my work stand toys, childhood favourites, and pop-cultural heroes. The multitude of colours and the interwoven forms—some elaborately rendered, others left deliberately rough—are not signs of technical inaccuracy; for me, they are painterly responses to an uncertain and shifting reality. I do not seek to illustrate, but to condense the feeling that today’s young generation—myself included—experiences within a continuously changing, often indecipherable social environment. The chaos that appears in the paintings is no accident: it is a consciously constructed instability. This is how I can reveal the state in which my identity—and that of my generation—is taking shape.

The motif of play is, for me, both a refuge and a question mark. I constantly ask myself: who provides protection? What does it mean to be a hero today, in a country where intergenerational points of reference are gradually disappearing? I deliberately draw from the iconography of my childhood, not out of nostalgia, but to discover new meanings within it. I do not wish to reconstruct the past, but to reinterpret it: the hero figures and plush toys that once brought comfort have become carriers of encoded psychological and social patterns.

The visual cavalcade I create—at once disorienting and alluring—is intended to speak to today’s viewer, especially those attuned to social uncertainty. My painting does not offer comfortable answers, but in doing so, it aims to create space for inner movement and questioning. I hope the viewer will not only reflect on who they were as a child, but also on who they may become in a world where play is no longer merely entertainment, but perhaps one of the last places where identity can find a foothold.

 

The exhibition will be opened by: Dr. Ágnes Szokolszky, psychologist

The exhibition is on view between 08 December 2025 and 16 January 2026 during gallery opening hours.