József Csató: Siren Hospitality

Vielmetter Los Angeles is thrilled to present Siren Hospitality, a solo exhibition by Hungarian painter József Csató, on view from March 22 to May 3, 2025. This exhibition marks Csató's first solo show in Los Angeles, featuring a selection of paintings alongside a site-specific installation composed of painted walls and hand-painted canvas cut-out shapes.

József Csató's paintings depict gatherings of dreamlike figures enriched by a unique aesthetic geometry. These unconventional forms dynamically emerge from his colorful canvases, creating a psychedelic symbolism in which amorphous shapes commingle to establish a compelling visual language. The striking compositions are complemented by soft, muted, monotone backgrounds that reveal modernist, fresco-like qualities through surreal layering.

Csató’s distinctive style distinguishes him from conventional narrative painting, seamlessly blending the familiar with the exotic into a cohesive framework that embodies both still life and landscape. His totemic hybrid beings evoke ancient cultures and subtly reference Dadaism, particularly reminiscent of the forms created by Jean Arp.

Filled with contradictions, Csató's artwork captures both joy and sorrow. Each painting begins with a wash of black, gradually building layers of paint to create mythical picture planes. The final surfaces come alive with intricate patterns of cross-hatching and marbling, enhanced by gestural oil stick markings and subtle airbrushed details. 

In Siren Hospitality, the recurring eyeball is a consistent theme throughout the exhibited paintings, evoking a range of feelings from humor to suspicion. For Csató, the act of seeing becomes an endeavor laden with truth, prophecy, and knowledge. The eyes also gaze back at the viewer, delivering an almost watchful warning.