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Petra Szemán (b. 1994, Budapest, Hungary) is a moving image artist working with animation and game-like landscapes. Their practice is centred around instances in which real life can be experienced as fictional. Using a virtual version of themself as a protagonist across various digital 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.
Petra is a BA Fine Art graduate from Newcastle University (2013-2017), and has exhibited since at NEoN Festival in Dundee, Scotland; Big Screen Southend; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, 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 in Gateshead. They’re currently running the project ‘On Animatics’ that entails video commissions about the overlapping area between artists’ moving image, games and anime; and co-authoring the accompanying book Weeb Theory with Jamie Sutcliffe, coming out in 2022 with Banner Repeater (London). Petra is a finalist for the 2022 Arts Foundation Futures Awards in the category of Animation. ((pronouns: they/them)) |
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petra.szeman@gmail.com
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EXHIBITIONS / SCREENINGS
CURRENTLY ON / UPCOMING
How to win at photography, Fotomuseum Winthertur, Switzerland (5 Jun-10 Oct)
Departing Soon, arthousesLOCALWIFI, Whitley Bay (20 Aug-30 Aug)
2021
Sky Above, Voice Within; Mock Jungle, Bologna, Italy (14 Jun-11 July)
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
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
How to win at photography, Fotomuseum Winthertur, Switzerland (5 Jun-10 Oct)
Departing Soon, arthousesLOCALWIFI, Whitley Bay (20 Aug-30 Aug)
2021
Sky Above, Voice Within; Mock Jungle, Bologna, Italy (14 Jun-11 July)
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
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