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Petra Szemán (b. 1994, based between NE England and Japan // born in Budapest, Hungary)
Petra Szemán is a moving image artist working with animation and game-like landscapes. Their practice focuses on the murky borderlands along the arbitrary line separating real and fictional, and the kind of lives and experiences that are possible there. Using a virtual version of themself as a protagonist journeying through animatic realms, they explore liminal spaces and threshold situations, looking to dissect the ways our memories and selves are constructed within a landscape oversaturated with fiction (both on- and off-screen). Turning away from thinking of the cyberspace as a radically ’other’ realm, Petra hopes to walk the line situated between dystopian and utopian frameworks, eyes set on new queer horizons. Petra is a BA Fine Art graduate from Newcastle University (2013-2017), and has exhibited since at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, NTT InterCommunicationCentrein Tokyo, as well as various galleries across England, Continental Europe and East-Asia. After spending two years in Japan, developing a body of work as a recipient of a research scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education and Culture (2018-2020), Petra is now based between North-East England and Tokyo, Japan. They’re the co-author/editor of WEEB THEORY, a book about the overlapping area between artists’ moving image, games and anime (published by Banner Repeater, London 2023). Petra is a lecturer in the Fine Art department at Newcastle University. ((pronouns: they/them)) ((magyar/English/日本語 OK)) |
EXHIBITIONS / SCREENINGS
CURRENTLY ON / UPCOMING
2025
Many Ghosts, Many Shells, Seventeen, London, UK
Avatar Discussion Club, as part of Many Ghosts, Many Shells, Seventeen, London, UK
Delicate Liminalities / 些細な狭間, NewBridge Books
Border as Interface, Ennova Art Biennale, China
Delicate Liminalities / 些細な狭間, Art Lounge Room 101, Tokyo, Japan
2024
Towards a New Monomyth?, QUAD, Derby, UK
架空と現実を行き来するSNS時代のアート達 / Crossing Between Fictional and Real, Aster Curator Museum, Kanazawa, Japan
Artist talk, QUAD, Derby, UK
Critical Acts: Performance Lectures exploring how power operates in the digital age, with A.N.D at School of Digital Arts (SODA), UK
Digital Participation Artist Residency, QUAD, Derby, UK
Mirror Neurons, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle UK
How To How To, Sluice [Vernacular], Colchester
Avatars and Alter Egos: Identities in the electronic realm, M+, Hong Kong
Now In Digital Art: Game Room, Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey
Digital Portraiture, [Senne], Brussels
Character Creator, SEAGER, London, UK
Areas of Effect, arebyte, London, UK
I cried at the end of a manga, École municipale des beaux-arts / Galerie Édouard-Manet, Gennevilliers, France
都市にひそむミエナイモノ Invisibles in the Neo City, SusHi Tech Square, Tokyo, Japan
Y: LAN party, Divadlo X10, Prague, Czechia
2023
都市にひそむミエナイモノ Invisibles in the Neo City, SusHi Tech Square, Tokyo, Japan
ZOR, Calm & Punk Gallery, Tokyo, JP
Openings !!! (solo show), Two Queens, Leicester, UK
Player Piano, The Art Station, Saxmundham, UK
The advantages of being boneless and incomplete, Banner Repeater, London, UK
地平線に目を向ける Eyes on the horizon, The Fifth Floor, Tokyo, Japan
Alternate Presence, Seventeen Gallery, London, UK
クィアな地平線 Queer Horizons, 脱衣所 - (a) place to be naked, Tokyo, Japan
2022
多層世界の歩き方/Random walk on the multilayered world, ICC, Tokyo, Japan
Virtual Landscapes, Senne, Brussels, Belgium
Fission - The New Wave of International Digital Art, Guizhou Provincial Museum, China
How to win at photography, The Photographers’ Gallery, London
生命的なものたち Life/Likeness, NTT InterCommunicationCentre, Tokyo, Japan
Arthouses:REVISIT, Whitley Bay, UK
No Death, Just Respawn; Nitja Senter for Samtidskunst, Lillestrøm
2021
Departing Soon, arthousesLOCALWIFI, Whitley Bay
Sky Above, Voice Within; Mock Jungle, Bologna, Italy
How to win at photography, Fotomuseum Winthertur, Switzerland
Vug (collab w/ Sam Aaron), Durham Digitale @ Killhope Lead Mining Museum (online)
This picture is an image, Eston Arts Centre (online)
2020
To go off-screen, isthisit? (online)
2020 DO NOT LINK, Upstream Gallery (online)
VRAL, Milan Machinima Festival (online)
Arthouses Inverted (online)
Piper in the Woods, isthisit? (online)
goingAway.tv, arebyte Gallery, London
Over the structures, CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea
2019
The Next Thing - Moving Image Award, Bury Art Museum
Arthouses, Whitley Bay
Digital Citizen: The Precarious Subject, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
Eyecatcher V, Big Screen Southend, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea
Milan Machinima Festival, Milan, Italy
hu - Hungarian touring exhibition, Abject Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
hu - Hungarian touring exhibition, White Conduit Projects, London
2018
hu - Hungarian touring exhibition, GENERATORprojects, Dundee, Scotland
Wherever I go, I'm in a movie: EBC screening event (with BF Artist Film festival), East Bristol Contemporary, Bristol
Sky axe & a short programme of moving image, Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn, NYC, US
Transmediating Murakami, Atrium and Long Gallery, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne
read about this project here
I look better online // zine launch and exhibition, System Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, co-curated with Stella Dixon
Life 2.0 pavilion, The Wrong Biennale
2017
Geltung (validity): perception of a natural right, NEoN Festival, GENERATORprojects, Dundee, Scotland
(curated by Alejandro Ball and Ines Costa) ONLINE component available: agorama.org.uk
Newcastle University BA Degree Show, Hoxton Arches, London
The big fish will grow up to be a giant bird, Tic Space, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2016
Unstapled Press’ Venn Launch (as assistant curator), Abject Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Tag urself (curator and exhibiting artist), Tic Space, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Interim I. (curator, exhibiting artist), Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2015
Oh, the rest is silence, NewBridge Annex Space, Newcastle Upon Tyne
ART_INSP_LOL.png in collaboration with Ellen Welsh and Charlotte Cook, Tic Space, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Underscore, North Wing, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Ouseburn Festival - Broadside, North Wing, Newcastle Upon Tyne
The Yung Ones, System Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Phantasma, World Headquarters, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2014
Yellow Wallpaper: Women and Mental Health, Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle Upon Tyne
EDUCATION
2013-2017 1st Class B.A. (Honours) Fine Art, Newcastle University, UK
2016 on exchange for a semester at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
THINGS TO READ
'Artist to watch' on the Contemporary Art Society website: read here
read about my work in a brilliant essay 'On Animatics' written by Jamie Sutcliffe in Art Monthly (2020 May issue)
ZINES!
Founded the Artnerds Zine Distro online zine store and collective, 2016 (currently on break)
https://artnerdszinedistro.etsy.com
Some of our zines are part of the Tate Library’s zine collection!
GRANTS and AWARDS
Arts Foundation Futures Award in Animation (finalist), 2022
MEXT Research Scholarship to fund two years of research at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, 2018-2020
Bartlett Travel Award to fund an art research trip to Tokyo, Japan, 2016
Bartlett Travel Award to fund an art research trip to Kyushu, Japan, 2017
CURRENTLY ON / UPCOMING
2025
Many Ghosts, Many Shells, Seventeen, London, UK
Avatar Discussion Club, as part of Many Ghosts, Many Shells, Seventeen, London, UK
Delicate Liminalities / 些細な狭間, NewBridge Books
Border as Interface, Ennova Art Biennale, China
Delicate Liminalities / 些細な狭間, Art Lounge Room 101, Tokyo, Japan
2024
Towards a New Monomyth?, QUAD, Derby, UK
架空と現実を行き来するSNS時代のアート達 / Crossing Between Fictional and Real, Aster Curator Museum, Kanazawa, Japan
Artist talk, QUAD, Derby, UK
Critical Acts: Performance Lectures exploring how power operates in the digital age, with A.N.D at School of Digital Arts (SODA), UK
Digital Participation Artist Residency, QUAD, Derby, UK
Mirror Neurons, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle UK
How To How To, Sluice [Vernacular], Colchester
Avatars and Alter Egos: Identities in the electronic realm, M+, Hong Kong
Now In Digital Art: Game Room, Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey
Digital Portraiture, [Senne], Brussels
Character Creator, SEAGER, London, UK
Areas of Effect, arebyte, London, UK
I cried at the end of a manga, École municipale des beaux-arts / Galerie Édouard-Manet, Gennevilliers, France
都市にひそむミエナイモノ Invisibles in the Neo City, SusHi Tech Square, Tokyo, Japan
Y: LAN party, Divadlo X10, Prague, Czechia
2023
都市にひそむミエナイモノ Invisibles in the Neo City, SusHi Tech Square, Tokyo, Japan
ZOR, Calm & Punk Gallery, Tokyo, JP
Openings !!! (solo show), Two Queens, Leicester, UK
Player Piano, The Art Station, Saxmundham, UK
The advantages of being boneless and incomplete, Banner Repeater, London, UK
地平線に目を向ける Eyes on the horizon, The Fifth Floor, Tokyo, Japan
Alternate Presence, Seventeen Gallery, London, UK
クィアな地平線 Queer Horizons, 脱衣所 - (a) place to be naked, Tokyo, Japan
2022
多層世界の歩き方/Random walk on the multilayered world, ICC, Tokyo, Japan
Virtual Landscapes, Senne, Brussels, Belgium
Fission - The New Wave of International Digital Art, Guizhou Provincial Museum, China
How to win at photography, The Photographers’ Gallery, London
生命的なものたち Life/Likeness, NTT InterCommunicationCentre, Tokyo, Japan
Arthouses:REVISIT, Whitley Bay, UK
No Death, Just Respawn; Nitja Senter for Samtidskunst, Lillestrøm
2021
Departing Soon, arthousesLOCALWIFI, Whitley Bay
Sky Above, Voice Within; Mock Jungle, Bologna, Italy
How to win at photography, Fotomuseum Winthertur, Switzerland
Vug (collab w/ Sam Aaron), Durham Digitale @ Killhope Lead Mining Museum (online)
This picture is an image, Eston Arts Centre (online)
2020
To go off-screen, isthisit? (online)
2020 DO NOT LINK, Upstream Gallery (online)
VRAL, Milan Machinima Festival (online)
Arthouses Inverted (online)
Piper in the Woods, isthisit? (online)
goingAway.tv, arebyte Gallery, London
Over the structures, CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea
2019
The Next Thing - Moving Image Award, Bury Art Museum
Arthouses, Whitley Bay
Digital Citizen: The Precarious Subject, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
Eyecatcher V, Big Screen Southend, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea
Milan Machinima Festival, Milan, Italy
hu - Hungarian touring exhibition, Abject Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
hu - Hungarian touring exhibition, White Conduit Projects, London
2018
hu - Hungarian touring exhibition, GENERATORprojects, Dundee, Scotland
Wherever I go, I'm in a movie: EBC screening event (with BF Artist Film festival), East Bristol Contemporary, Bristol
Sky axe & a short programme of moving image, Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn, NYC, US
Transmediating Murakami, Atrium and Long Gallery, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne
read about this project here
I look better online // zine launch and exhibition, System Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, co-curated with Stella Dixon
Life 2.0 pavilion, The Wrong Biennale
2017
Geltung (validity): perception of a natural right, NEoN Festival, GENERATORprojects, Dundee, Scotland
(curated by Alejandro Ball and Ines Costa) ONLINE component available: agorama.org.uk
Newcastle University BA Degree Show, Hoxton Arches, London
The big fish will grow up to be a giant bird, Tic Space, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2016
Unstapled Press’ Venn Launch (as assistant curator), Abject Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Tag urself (curator and exhibiting artist), Tic Space, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Interim I. (curator, exhibiting artist), Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2015
Oh, the rest is silence, NewBridge Annex Space, Newcastle Upon Tyne
ART_INSP_LOL.png in collaboration with Ellen Welsh and Charlotte Cook, Tic Space, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Underscore, North Wing, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Ouseburn Festival - Broadside, North Wing, Newcastle Upon Tyne
The Yung Ones, System Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Phantasma, World Headquarters, Newcastle Upon Tyne
2014
Yellow Wallpaper: Women and Mental Health, Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle Upon Tyne
EDUCATION
2013-2017 1st Class B.A. (Honours) Fine Art, Newcastle University, UK
2016 on exchange for a semester at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
THINGS TO READ
'Artist to watch' on the Contemporary Art Society website: read here
read about my work in a brilliant essay 'On Animatics' written by Jamie Sutcliffe in Art Monthly (2020 May issue)
ZINES!
Founded the Artnerds Zine Distro online zine store and collective, 2016 (currently on break)
https://artnerdszinedistro.etsy.com
Some of our zines are part of the Tate Library’s zine collection!
GRANTS and AWARDS
Arts Foundation Futures Award in Animation (finalist), 2022
MEXT Research Scholarship to fund two years of research at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, 2018-2020
Bartlett Travel Award to fund an art research trip to Tokyo, Japan, 2016
Bartlett Travel Award to fund an art research trip to Kyushu, Japan, 2017