Gyula Varosy

Born in Szombathely, Hungary, I came to the USA as a refugee in 1957, settling in Buffalo, NY. After receiving Architectural degrees from Pratt Institute and Harvard University, I received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Germany. Settling in New York City, I worked in architecture focused on public housing and community development with various firms. At the same time, I wanted to pursue a more “personal” art, setting up a studio to draw and sculpt.

Once married with a family, my wife Hannie, also an artist, and I moved upstate to an old farmhouse in Greenwich. The process of renovating an unused and rundown 19th century barn on the newly acquired property into an office/studio/workshop was the initiation to a new artistic involvement. The old barn had its share of derelict treasures--boards and beams, windows and doors, knobs and latches--not in sets, not by the dozen, but unique, special items of quality and history, all waiting for a new context. It was this recognition that inspired me to design and build one of a kind furniture, utilizing reclaimed material. The board may be cracked, but the color and grain could not be matched, for the tree it came from sprouted over 300 years ago; there may be nail holes and marks on it, but somebody worked it 150 years ago, and the slight sag or warp of an old door is forgiven. The intent at the same time was not historical reproduction in any way, but the creation of unique pieces, built with a personal construction method and aesthetic vocabulary--like sculptures . . .

This was the beginning of the return to sculpture with wood as the major material--a block of wood and a chisel to find the story inside . . . Sisyphus was in some, other images and figures from mythology in others: horses, with riders and without and just figures.

Recently I had several works cast in bronze. Some were done in plaster 30 years ago, some small pieces in wax recently. I do all the finishing work on the bronzes: chasing, and patinas.

I recently completed a new gallery. This, with the recently improved studio space, completes the work environment. Other possibilities are now open. It’s exciting!

“We have all let anthropologists, philosophers, historians, connoisseurs and everybody else tell us what art is or what it should be. But I think we ought to very simply let it be what the artist says it is. And what the artist says it is, you can see by his work. I would like to leave it just like that.” Sculptor David Smith

EXHIBITIONS AND OPEN STUDIOS

5 Person Exhibit 2010 ~~ Riverfront Studios Gallery, Schuylerville, NY
Group Exhibit 2010 ~~ House of Creative Soul, Saratoga Springs, NY
Group Exhibit – 2009 & 2010 ~~ Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT
Open Studios Washington County, NY July 2009
Group Exhibit 2008 ~~ 80 Washington Square East Galleries, New York, NY
Group Exhibit 2007 ~~ Riverfront Studios Gallery, Schuylerville, NY
3 Person Exhibit 2006 ~~ Saratoga Amtrak Station Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
4 Person Exhibit 2006 ~~ Riverfront Studios Gallery, Schuylerville, NY
Group Exhibit 2003 & 2004 ~~ Maple Ridge Gallery, Cambridge, NY
Group Exhibit 2004 ~~ Valley Artisan's Market/Small Gallery, Cambridge, NY
2 Person Exhibit 2002 ~~ Berkshire Artisans, Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, Pittsfield, MA
4 Person Exhibit 2002 ~~ Lapham Gallery, Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council, Glens Falls, NY
Solo Exhibit 2001 ~~ New York University-Broadway Windows Gallery, New York, NY
2 Person Exhibit 2000 ~~ The Arts Center Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
Group Exhibit 2000 ~~ Northeast Regional, Schenectady Museum, NY
Solo Exhibit 1999~~ Valley Artisan’s Market Small Gallery, Cambridge, NY
Group Exhibit 1998 ~~ Art Fair ’98, Schenectady Museum, Schenectady, NY