Landscapes of the Mind: Fiction & Reality broaches the subject of Nature and Environment; an urgent and ever-growing issue most of us choose to look away from or simply ignore. Presenting a selection of works by Tamara Haddad and Szilard Huszank, this painting exhibition proposes two different viewpoints, approaches and techniques, which in reality complete each other and have similar intentions. Dual characteristics are omnipresent throughout the exhibition: beauty and destruction, factuality and imagination, figuration and abstraction, traditional and unconventional…

Szilard Huszank uses a layering technique to compose and create his wooded landscapes, which he refers to as “Landscape Collages” (LC) or “Imaginary Landscapes” (IL). Indeed, Szilard’s landscapes are assembled in a very particular manner that puts forward some motifs and hides others. The artist borrows familiar elements from nature such as branches, trees, leaves or mountains and renders them unfamiliar by his use of vivid colors, leaving the viewer unable to swiftly grasp the complete image. Characterized by these vibrant and anti-naturalistic colors, Huszank’s pictorial landscapes become fictional enchanted gardens. Pristine and untouched, they seem very far from our urban world and away from human life.

Although there are no apparent humans in Tamara Haddad’s work either, their presence is certainly more noticeable. Tamara’s work focuses on the immensity of the Earth, its generosity as well as its infinite textures, resources and colors. Through her rocky landscapes, the artist sheds light on important issues such as deforestation, global warming, wildfires and pollution. Haddad searches for beauty and inspiration in some of the world’s most impressive forests including those of Nepal, Tibet and Lebanon, where she gets hold of earthy elements that she adds to her oil paintings. Her work is an invitation to rejoice in the undeniable splendor of our Earth while sensitizing the viewer to its equally undeniable fragility.

This exhibition brings together two different bodies of work, both focusing on nature. While Szilard Huszank presents a somewhat utopic and imaginary landscape, Tamara Haddad confronts us with a more accurate representation of our environment.