Szabolcs Bozó (b. 1992, Hungary) lives and works in London, and has recently opened a retrospective of his work at NEO Contemporary Art Space in Budapest (2025). Break-dancing his way through Milan to London in 2012, the young artist started drawing inspired by his native Hungarian folklore while working in a restaurant. A self taught artist turning his doodles into expressive paintings, his work is defined by a vivid cast of cartoon-like animal figures rendered in a riot of colour and gesture. Drawing on the Hungarian carnival Busójárás, and inspired by his grandmothers—puppet makers and artists; whose art never reached a wider audience—Bozó began creating vibrant drawings and paintings of playful animal characters with expressive charm and folkloric flair. When a Spanish gallery noticed his enticing drawings on Instagram, he was offered a residency in Mallorca.
National symbolism, irony, and technical experimentation—shaped the media landscape of Bozó's youth. Alongside puppet shows, early video games, comics, and fables, Hungarian television was filled with surreal yet emotionally resonant programming like Little Mole and Süsü the Dragon, whose eccentricities paralleled British cult classics like The Magic Roundabout. These influences permeate Bozó's paintings, where he doesn’t merely replicate cultural references but transforms them through a joyful, melancholic lens, celebrating the act of painting itself as a means of reinvention.
Solo exhibitions include; ‘Tüke’, Almine Rech, New York, Tribeca (2024); ‘ Faces Instead of Name’s, Almine Rech, Palazzo Cavanis, Venice (2023); ‘Busójárás (Carnival)’, Almine Rech, Brussels (2022); ‘The Explorer’, Carl Kostyal, London (2021). Group exhibitions include; ‘The 3 Musketeers (Trio De Large)’, Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad (2023); ‘As Friends & Partners’, WOAW, Singapore (2023), XY_now, Q_now, Q Contemporary, Budapest (2021).