Iosif Király

b. 1957

Iosif Király is one of the most renowned artists working with photography in Romania.

His work investigates the relationship between perception, time, synchronicity and memory through photography, installation-art, drawing and more recently, video. He has initiated, coordinated, and, together with architects, visual artists, and anthropologists, participated in research projects related to the changes having occurred in post-communist Romania: D-Platform, RO-Archive, Triaj, Tinseltown. During the 1980s, Iosif Király became active in the mail art network, an international underground movement established by Fluxus. After 1989, he exhibited both individually and within the subREAL* group.

“…through his work “Reconstruction,” he hopes to blend time and space, capturing it in images-syntheses that seem to merge without producing any sequence. In reality, these are images composed of photographs taken in the same places at different moments.”

During the 1980s, Iosif Király became active in the mail art network, an international underground movement established by Fluxus. After 1989, he exhibited both individually and within the subREAL* group. Iosif Király’s works are found in numerous private and public collections such as the following: The National Contemporary Art Museum in Bucharest, 2000+ Arteast Collection, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana*; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Light Work, Syracuse, NY; Hamburger Bahnhof –Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Neue Galerie Graz am Landsesmuseum Joanneum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Ars Aevi, Sarajevo*; Q Contemporary, Budapest*; The Benetton Collection; Emprise Bank, Wichita, KS; Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena; European Central Bank, Frankfurt; Hypo Bank, Frankfurt*.

Since 1991 he has been teaching contemporary photography at the National University of Arts (UNArte) in Bucharest, Romania. In 1995, he was among the founders of the Department of Photography and Media Art at UNArte, where he is presently a professor. Since 2013 he has also been teaching in the Master of Visual Studies program at the National School of Political Science and Public Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest.

...photographs taken in the same places at different moments​ →
...photographs taken in the same places at different moments​ →
Iosif Király, Synapses, Danube, Iron Gates, 2016 – 2020
Iosif Király, Reconstructions, Trains No. 3, 2002 – 2003
Iosif Király, Echoes_Birchis 1C, 1965 - 2022

Iosif Király is one of the most renowned artists working with photography in Romania. His work investigates the relationship between perception, time, synchronicity and memory through photography, installation-art, drawing and more recently, video. He has initiated, coordinated, and, together with architects, visual artists, and anthropologists, participated in research projects related to the changes having occurred in post-communist Romania: D-Platform, RO-Archive, Triaj, Tinseltown.

During the 1980s, Iosif Király became active in the mail art network, an international underground movement established by Fluxus. After 1989, he exhibited both individually and within the subREAL* group. Iosif Király’s works are found in numerous private and public collections such as the following: The National Contemporary Art Museum in Bucharest, 2000+ Arteast Collection, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana*; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Light Work, Syracuse, NY; Hamburger Bahnhof –Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Neue Galerie Graz am Landsesmuseum Joanneum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Ars Aevi, Sarajevo*; Q Contemporary, Budapest*; The Benetton Collection; Emprise Bank, Wichita, KS; Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena; European Central Bank, Frankfurt; Hypo Bank, Frankfurt*.

Since 1991 he has been teaching contemporary photography at the National University of Arts (UNArte) in Bucharest, Romania. In 1995, he was among the founders of the Department of Photography and Media Art at UNArte, where he is presently a professor. Since 2013 he has also been teaching in the Master of Visual Studies program at the National School of Political Science and Public Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest.

Solo Exhibitions

2020 Letting the Days Go By, Water Flowing Underground, Anca Poterașu Gallery, Bucureşti/ RO; MATCA artspace, Cluj-Napoca/ RO

2020 Rain Without Clouds(sound performance with Cătalin Crețu), WASP, Bucureşti/ RO

2019 The Heroes Were People Like Us , WASP, Bucureşti/ RO

2019 Detours and Returns; Moments, Places, People., Museum of Visual Arts, Galați/ RO

2019 88 Clouds Will Rain for You, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp/ BE (in the framework of Europalia festival)

2019 88 Clouds Will Rain for You,Musica,Impulscentrum voor Muziek/ Provinciaal Domein Dommelhof/ CC Palethe/ Gemeente Pelt (in the framework of Europalia festival)”

2019 subREAL- Listening to Sculpture in Timișoara,Casa Artelor, Timișoara/ RO

2019 subREAL- Serving Art Again, Paris Photo / FR and Jecza Gallery, Timișoara/ RO

2019 Heroes Were People Just Like Us, WASP, Bucureşti/ RO

2018 Closed Doors, Open Envelopes, early works 1995-2000, National Museum of Contemporary Art(MNAC), Bucharest/ RO

2018 Synapses, Borderline Art Space, Iași/ RO

2018 87 Clouds Will Rain for You, UNAgaleria, București/ RO

2018 87 Clouds Will Rain for You, Explore Festival, WASP, București/ RO

2016 Standby – Wrapped Memory, Museum of Ţării Crişurilor County, Oradea/ RO

2015 Trace Recordings – From Performance to Land Art by Photography and Mail Art. Iosif Király and Doru Tulcan, 1970 – 1990, Jecza Gallery, in the framework of TAE(Timişoara Art Encounters), Timişoara/ RO

2014 subREAL – Serving Art_1, Intact Gallery, Cluj/ RO

2013 subREAL – Retrospect, SALT, Istanbul/ TR(catalog)

2013 Photography: From Melancholy to Trauma, From Document to Monument., Intact Gallery, Cluj-Napoca/ RO

2012 subREAL – Retrospect, 1990-2012, MNAC, București/ RO (catalog)

2012 Then and Now. Between Layers of Memory, Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam/ NL

2012 Art is Concrete, Dataflow – Camera Austria, Graz/ AT

2012 Searching for the Decisive Moment, Jecza Gallery

2010 Reconstructions, Camera Austria, Graz/ AT

2009 Reconstrucciones, Museo de Semana Santa/ Photo Espana, Cuenca/ ES

2009 Mapping Berlin and Bucharest 1989 – 2009, Posibila Gallery/ subCărturești Gallery, București/ RO(poster)

2008 Reconstruction(s), Galerie Vrais Reves, Lyon / FR, in the frame of Lyon Septembre de la Photographie

2007 Tinseltown, German Cultural Center, Timișoara/ RO

2006 In Situ, Institut Francais de Bucharest/ RO

2006 Memoria, Futura Gallery, Praha/ CZ

2006 East from the West, Galleria Artra, Milano/ IT(poster)

2005 Blue, Inventing the River Danube, Technisches Museum Wien/ AT(book)

2004 Marshalling Yard, Galeria Noua, București/ RO

2004 subREAL – Communication 1:1:1(performance) , MNAC‐Kalinderu Medialab București/ RO

2003 Reconstructions, Galeria Noua, București/ RO

2003 subREAL – Interviewing the Cities, Stockholm, IASPIS Galleriet, Stockholm/ SE

2003 subREAL – Interviewing the Cities, București, Galeria Noua, București/ RO

2001 subREAL – Interviewing the Cities, Vienna, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna/ AT (cat)

2001 subREAL – Interviewing the Cities, Montreal,Vox Gallery, Montreal/ CA

2001 Turreted Mansions, Center for Contemporary Art, București/ RO (poster)

2000 Indirect, Profil Galerie, Bratislava/ SK(cat)

1998 subREAL – Serving Art 1&2 Akademie Schloss Solitude , Stuttgart / DE

1996 subREAL – Dataroom, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein/ DE(cat)

1994 subREAL – The Castle, Center for Contemporary Art – Ujazdowski, Warsaw/ PL(poster)

1992 subREAL – Draculaland,Museum of Art Bistrița/ RO(cat)

Selected group exhibitions

2024 RAD ART Fair, Bucharest, Romania

2024 Ecology of the After Life, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2024 Art Brussels 2024, Brussels, Belgium

2023 Nature Expanded, curated by Ileanna Pintilie, Meta Spatiu, Timisoara, Romania

2022 Bucharest, une ville ouverte, ENSA, Paris, Fr

2022 When Walls Talk! Posters, Promotion, Propaganda and Protest, House of European History, Bruxelles, Be

2021 L’Air du Temps, Main Section, Paris Photo, FR

2021 1+2+3+4 / An anniversary , a compass for the future, Jecza Gallery, Timisoara, Ro

2021 Borrowed Memories, Waldburger Woulters, Bruxelles, Be

2021 Why Image Matters / International Meetings of Photography 2021, Gallery of the City, Plovdiv, Bg

2021 Image fantôme, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest

2021 Crossing the same Circumstances, Kommunale Galerie Berlin

2021 Intermingling Flux: Guangzhou Image Triennial 2021, Guangdong Museum of Art, China

2021 Grenzenlos / Fără frontiere / Borderless, Pavilion 32, Goethe-Institut Bucuresti, Ro

2021 How to explain pictures…, Scena 9, Bucharest

2021 The Show That Never Was, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Ro

2020 After 12 years, Romanian Artistic Production in 180 artworks , Bucharest, Ro

2019 FRAMED LANDSCAPES: European Photography Commissions, 1984-2019, ICO Museum, Madrid/ ES(in the framework of Photo Espana)

2019 Mythologies, Cultural Center Neumunster Abbey, Luxembourg/ LU

2019 EX-EAST: HISTOIRES PASSÉES ET RÉCENTES DES AVANT-GARDES ROUMAINES, Espace Niemeyer, Paris/ FR

2019 Frictions, Tensions, Controversies, Coexistence, Concomitances, SAC, Bucureşti/ RO

2019 Perspectives, Bozar, Bruxelles/ BE(in the framework of Europalia festival)

2019 Looking Back, Thinking Forward, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai/ BE(in the framework of Europalia festival)

2018 Camera Austria International, Laboratory for Photography and Theory, Museum der Moderne Salzburg/ AT

2018 Couples, Companions, Families in the Visual Arts, In the framework of the festival Arts in Bucharest, Orizont Gallery, București/ RO

2018 Listening to sculptures, In the framework of Bucharest Arts and Public Space Festival, WASP, Bucureşti/ RO

2018 Bucharest Arts and Public Space Festival, WASP Studios, Bucureşti/ RO

2018 Memory as Vision, Fabrica de pensule,Cluj-Napoca/ RO

2018 Collage 3, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna/ AT

2018 Freedom is Recognized Necessity, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam/ NL

2018 36th Asolo Art Film Festival, Asolo/ IT

2018 DOUBLE HEADS MATCHES, A selection of contemporary artworks from four Romanian private collections, New Budapest Gallery, Budapest/ HU

2018 Join the Dots – Connect the Distances/ Imago Mundi Benetton Collection, Salone degli Incanti, Trieste/ IT

2017 10 YEARS OLD, 2007-2017: a history of the world told through the images of the Fondazione Cassa di risparmio di Modena Collection, Foro Boario, Modena/ IT

2017 Bucureşti, Spaces and Perspectives 1&2, A5_Gallery & UNAGAgaleria, Bucureşti/ RO

2016 Brain Tattoos, A Map of Obsessions, Victoria Art Center Bucureşti/ RO, ICR Lisbon/ PT

2016 In Plain Sight: Social Life in Romania and South Africa before and after 1989, Aparte Gallery and Borderline Gallery/ Iasi/ RO

2016 D_Platform, Aparte Gallery, Iași/ RO

2016 D_Platform, Posibila Gallery, București/ RO

2016 Communist Big Brother Operation, CEREFREEA, Villa Noel, Bucureşti/ RO

2015 Le Projet Kairouan, Centre de Présentation du Patrimoine de Kairouan, Palais El Abdelliya – La Marsa, Tunis/ TU

2015 Ex & Post Eastern Europe under the lens, Australian Center for Photography, Sydney/ AU

2015 BE & RO Archive, UNAgaleria, București/ RO; Maison de la culture de Tournai/ BE

2015 Apparence and Essence, Halele Timco, in the framework of TAE (Timișoara Art Encounters), Timișoara/ RO

2015 From Confirmation to Challenge. Artistic Practices in Public Space, MNAC, București/ RO

2014 Perduti nel paesaggio, MART – Museo di Arte Moderna et Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto/ IT

2014 Europe. South East-RECORDED MEMORIES,MNAC

2014 Turning Points, Hungarian National Gallery, Buda Palace, Budapest/ HU

2014 Kiritik und Krise, Balassi Institut, Collegium Hungaricum, Berlin/ DE

2014 Bucharest Artistic Education and Romanian Art After 1950, MNAC_etaj 1, București/ RO

2014 WHAT ABOUT Y[OUR] MEMORY, MNAC_etaj 4, București/ RO

2014 Expanded Space, Parcul Izvor, București/ RO

2014 Contemporary Art Ruhr, – Media Art Fair, Essen/ DE

2014 Art Safari, Pavilionul de Artă, București/ RO

2013 Europe. South East-RECORDED MEMORIES, Museum of Photography Braunschweig/ D; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka/ Si; Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki/ GR

2013 The City Seen by the Generation 80’s, Victoria Art Center, București/ RO

2013 Switch Over, Victoria Art Center, București/ RO

2012 Doppio gioco – Double Game. The Ambiguity of the Photographic Image, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice/ IT.

2012 Second Life in Communism, Platforma/ anexa MNAC, București/ RO

2012 City Cultures in Focus, Depo Gallery Istanbul/ TR

2012 Time, Place and the Camera: Photographs at work, National Gallery of Kosovo, Prishtina/ Kosovo

2012 Body World. Traveling the Distance between Subject and Object, Victoria Art Center For Contemporary Cultural Production, București/ RO

2011 Curated By, Charim Gallery Vienna/ AT

2011 Bucarest. Ciudad paradójica, in the framework of Photo Espana, Madrid/ ES

2011 e-cites / Bucarest, Musée d’Art Moderne, Saint-Etienne, FR(cat)

2011 Art Embodied, Romanian Artists from the 80’s/, Galerie Alain Oudin, Paris/ FR(cat)

2011 Memoirs from a Cold Utopia, London Print Studio, UK(cat)

2010 European Central Bank ‐ Annual Photography Award 2009, MNAC, Bucharest/ RO (catalog)

2010 Territories of the In/Human, Württembergische Kunstverein(WKV), Stuttgart/ DE (catalog)

2010 When History Comes Knocking: Romanian Art from 80s and 90s in Close Up, Gallery Plan B, Berlin/ DE

2010 Transitions Urbaines – Espace Apollonia, Strasbour/ FR

2010 Transitland: video art in Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2009, Reina Sofia, Madrid/ ES

2010 Are you a lucky artist? Biblioteca Civica d’Arte Luigi Poletti, Musei Civici, Modena/ IT

2009 Subversive Practices, Art under Conditions of Political Repression 60s ‐ 80s South America/ Europe, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart/ DE(cat)

2009 History Memory Identity, Contemporary Photography from Eastern Europe, former Sant’Agostino Hospital, Modena/ IT(book)

2009 Expectations, MB Art Agency Amsterdam/ NL

2008 Ro‐Archive, Bruckenthal, Sibiu/ RO

2008 Ro‐Archive, Karlin Studios, Praha/ CZ

2008 Strategies for Concealing, C‐Space, Beijing/ PRC (cat)

2008 Rudolf Frankel, Berlin, București, MNAC, București/ RO

2007 Prague Biennale 3,Karlin Hall, Praha/ CZ(cat)

2007 Eternal Crossings, Photography Center of Thessaloniki/ GR (cat)

2007 L’Europe en Devenir,Teil II, Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris/ FR

2007 Social Cooking Romania, NGBK, Berlin/ DE(cat)

2006 Fuoriuso 06 – Are You Experienced?, Ex mercato ortofrutticolo COFA, Pescara/ IT(cat)

2006 NOT SHEEP: New Urban Enclosures and Commons, Artspeak Gallery, Vancouver/ CA

2005 Paradoxes: The Embodied City, Fundaçăo Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon/ PT(cat)

2005 Sous les ponts, Casino Luxembour / LU(cat)

2005 Trans:it. Moving Culture through Europe, Museale Veneziano, Venezia/ IT(book)

2004 Cosmopolis 1, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki/ GR(cat)

2004 We Are What We Are, Minoriten Gallerien, Graz/ AT(cat)

2004 Formate / Moving Patterns, Kunsthalle Wien, project space, Vienna/ AT(cat)

2004 Romanian Artists (and not only) Love Ceausescu’s Palace, MNAC, București/ RO(cat)

2004 Collage Europa, The Netherlands Architectural Institute (NAi), Rotterdam/NL(cat)

2004 Wiener Linien – Kunst und Stadtbeobachtung seit 1960, Wien Museum, Vienna/ AT(cat)

2004 Distance, Institute of Contemporary Art in Dunaujvaros/ HU

2004 Revolutions Reloaded, Galleria Artra, Milan/ IT

2003 In the Gorges of the Balkans, Kunsthalle Fridericianum Kassel/ DE(cat)

2003 Blood & Honey, Essl Museum Vienna/ AT(cat)

2002 In search of Balkania, Neue Galerie Graz am Landsesmuseum Joanneum/ AT(cat)

2002 Rest in Space, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo/ NO(cat)

2001 Empathy, Museum of Art, Pori/ FI(cat)

2000 Unlimited.Nl–3, Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam/ NL(cat)

2000 L’Autre Moitié de l’Europe, Galérie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris/FR(cd–ROM)

2000 Internationale Kurzfilmtages, Oberhausen/ DE(cat)

2000 La Ville / Le Jardin / La Mémoire, Académie de France, Villa Medicis, Rome/ IT(cat)

2000 Transitionland, – Muzeul National de Arta, București/ RO(cat)

1999 After the Wall – Art and Culture in Post-Communist Europe, – Moderna Museet,Stockholm / SE, Nationalgalerie, Berlin / DE, Ludwig Museum Budapest/ HU(cat)

1999 Biennale di Venezia, Romanian Pavilion/ IT(cat)

1998 Berlin Biennale, Postführamt, Berlin/ D(cat)

1997 Bucharest After 1989, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen/ DE(cat)

1997 SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe/ USA(cat)

1997 2000 – 3.ArtSpace + Interface, Neue Galerie am Johaneum, Graz/ AT(cat+cd‐ROM)

1997 Biennale di Venezia, Romanian Institute/ IT(cat)

1996 Le Corps Photographie, La Filature, Mulhouse/ FR(cat)

1996 Manifesta 1, Rotterdam/ NL(cat)

1995-1997 Beyond Belief – Contemporary Art from East-Central Europe, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha/ USA(cat)

1994 010101…, Soros Center for Contemporary Art, București/ RO(cat)

1994 Rumanische Avantgarte der 90er Jahre, Epikur Galerie, Wuppertal/ DE(cat)

1994 22 Bienal Internacional Sao Paulo, Sao PAulo/ BR (cat)

1994 Mesiac Fotografie, Bratislava/ SK(cat)

1994 Europa, Europa. A Century of Avantgarde in Central and Eastern Europe, Bonn/ DE(cat)

1993 Biennale di Venezia – Aperto, Corderie dell’Arsenale, Venezia/ IT(cat)

1992 2nd Internationale Foto – Triennale Esslingen/ DE(cat)

1992 Istanbul Biennial, Fezhane, Istanbul/ TR (cat)

Awards and Honours

2020 The Order “The Cultural Merit” for Visual Arts

2019 Award for Visual Arts of Radio Romania Cultural

2017 Forbes Hero, awarded by Forbes Romania

2001 National Award for Multimedia, Romanian Union of Fine Artists

Other Exhibited Artists