• born in 1954 in Budapest, Hungary
• immigrated to Canada in 1988
• studied sculpture, Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary (1979-1984)

click on thumbnails at left to view larger images

Istvan Zsako became a political refugee, with the rest of his family, in 1986 when he fled to Germany from Budapest, Hungary. In 1987 he won the Scholarship of Rome, receiving the chance to travel in Italy and take inspiration from countless ancient statues and sarcophagi. Upon arriving in Canada Zsako attempted to exhibit here but did not find a good reception for his work, feeling the sexual nature of some of his pieces was misunderstood. Since the mid-1990s the artist has been able to return to Hungary, maintaining a studio there and returning every year to exhibit and sell his work. Working with abstracted figures, Zsako's forms have a distinct playfulness such as that of Bird (1985), described by Lajos Lóska as a "small statue of a flat-headed, large-legged winged being with spherical eyes . . . simultaneously determined by the grotesque sincere charm of children’s dough figures and the transcendental mysteriousness of prehistoric creators" (1998). Many of Zsako's works, however, take the form of soldiers, bearing tiny swords or bows and arrows, and he admits that this is a result of growing up in a Europe that "has never had a break of fifty peaceful years" (1998). Working mainly in bronze, sometimes in stone, he has also experimented with beeswax figures. The influence of other Hungarian sculptors who have also worked with prehistoric forms, such as József Jakovits, Géza Samu, György Chesslay and Attila Mata, is apparent. His pieces have been described by Lajos Lóska as "modern-time idols, enigmatic, mysterious, sometimes playful variations on our subconscious ego, of sexuality, love, masculinity and femininity" (1998). Zsako curated Hungarian Prints (1996) for the Hamilton Artists Gallery, taught mould-making at the Burlington Art Centre, and has received numerous awards, including the Hungarian Art Council Award (1985) and the Biennial Prize at the 8th Hungarian Drawing Biennial in Salgotarjan, Hungary (1996).

Gallery Duba, Budapest, Hungary

Homage to Tamas Vigh
Vigado Gallery, Budapest, Hungary

Members Show
Hamilton Artists Inc., Hamilton, Ontario

Noah's Ark
Vigado Gallery, Budapest, Hungary

The Bronze Triangle
Galerie Slovackeho, Kremnica, Slovakia

21st Arts Hamilton
Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario

Contemporary Hungarian Visual Art
Mucsarnok, Budapest, Hungary; Galerie der Kunstler, Munich, Germany

Art Fair
Stockholm, Sweden

Derkovits Scholarship Winners
Mucsarnok, Budapest, Hungary

Workshop Exhibition
International Sculptor Colony, Villany, Hungary

40 Creative Years
Mucsarnok, Budapest, Hungary

Studio '85
Ernst Museum, Budapest, Hungary

Loska, Lajos. "Bronze idols: In Zsako's workshop." Tartalom (January/February 1998): 53.