PÉTER GALLOV
Péter Gallov (b. 1984, Budapest, Hungary) works primarily in drawing, printmaking, and installation. He studied Graphic Arts at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts (2008 – 2014).
Gallov has developed a highly controlled, process-driven visual language rooted in treating drawing not merely as preparation, but as an autonomous medium. His work is defined by a precise, graphic vocabulary, in which flattened, stylised forms recall the clarity of illustration, cartoons, and diagrammatic systems. Across his compositions, a recurring cast of anthropomorphic characters – humanised animals, clouds, mountains, and other hybridised forms – appears as reduced, repeatable elements, organised within clearly structured visual systems that cumulatively form an idiosyncratic visual encyclopedia. Earlier works frequently feature the scorpion as one such figure, used not as a symbolic motif but as a formal unit within these systems.
Working through repetition, symmetry, and variation, Gallov treats drawing as a method of constructing and testing visual order. His images unfold as tightly regulated systems in which each element is positioned in relation to an underlying logic, balancing precision with subtle shifts and transformations. This approach produces a distinctive tension between the immediacy of a cartoonish language and the discipline of a rule-based, process-oriented practice.
Gallov’s recent exhibitions include Cham-cham Yum-yum at Longtermhandstand, Budapest (2026), Gyönyörű Halott, Vámszedőház, Budapest (2023); The Cuteness Factor, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest (2023); REGRESSO. Das Kind in uns, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin / CHB Gallery, Berlin (2022), and delineo ergo cogito at the Vasarely Museum, Budapest (2022). Earlier presentations include Papaaaa!!!, PINCE, Budapest (2021), LavaNest at PINCE, Budapest (2021), and RODAN VS HEDORAH, a duo exhibition with János Donnák at FKSE, Budapest (2019). His work has also been shown in institutional contexts including MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen (2017), the Miskolc Graphic Triennial (2014, 2017), and Kunsthalle Budapest (2016, 2017). He is the recipient of the Derkovits Gyula Scholarship (2015–2017) and the Graphic of the Year Award (2017).
