Utopia collage by Mark Fridvalszki
Utopia (acrylic transfer on canvas, 70×100 cm) is a collage made by artist Mark Fridvalszki in 2018. It was shown in 2019 in a solo show at Horizont Gallery, Budapest.
The new exhibition of Mark Fridvalszki titled Works 21–22 presents his recent paintings and graphics focusing on a variety of topics such as Acid, UFO, cosmology and the conjure of lost futures and its lost spirits.
Mark Fridvalszki is Berlin based visual artist, his interest can be described as ”archeo-futurological”, since his collages, paintings, prints and installations consist of cultural sediments of our lost collective futurities. Merging various sources from pop- and counterculture, futuristic design, psychedelia, jazz and acid house, his works seek to create a temporal spiral between the late modern era filled with utopian energies and our futureless present.
One flyer referenced by Fridvalszki was made for an event named Utopia that took place on 7 August 1991 at Kiki’s Nitespot in Sheffield, UK, presented by The Invisible Man (see below). This flyer is symbolic for the rave movement, both in its use of typography and illustration. In rave culture, we find a lot of posters with black capital letters and spiritual illustrations, see e.g. the Telepathy logo.
In his collages, Fridvalszki focuses on many themes like acid music and the rave movement; themes that offer many interesting graphic elements. Fridvalski is inspired by the typefaces and the way they were used, and samples them. The O in “Utopia” (in Revue) is replaced by the smiley, a symbol that’s very present in the rave movement. The letters “Rav” are a detail from “UK Raveline!” set in Bronx, reused with squeezed proportions.
For reference: the original flyer from 1991 which was one of the sources for Mark Fridvalszki’s Utopia collage. In addition to Revue and Bronx, the fonts in use include ITC Souvenir, ITC Avant Garde Gothic, and Helvetica.
