Still Life, Still Smoking presents Attila Bagi’s first institutional solo exhibition in Slovakia. Centered on his acclaimed cigarette still lifes, the exhibition culminates in a monumental new painting that assembles the artist’s personal universe into a playful visual constellation. Art history, football, cinema, internet folklore, and everyday objects collide in compositions where memories, cultural icons, and painted illusion continuously overlap.

Revisiting one of painting’s oldest genres, Bagi expands the language of the still life beyond the picture plane. His carefully choreographed objects become protagonists, balancing humor with melancholy while drawing unexpected connections between vanitas painting, Surrealism, and contemporary visual culture. The exhibition offers a fresh perspective on still life as a living genre, capable of reflecting the complexities of contemporary visual culture through wit, precision, and painterly invention.

Text by Péter Bencze