Szilvia Ponyiczki
My practice explores memory, dreams and our connection to the past, both personal and collective. The works I create depict imagined worlds where ancient symbols, patterns, forgotten stories and fragments of human history come together.
My journey into these themes began with a personal search for identity and belonging after moving from Hungary to the UK. Through exploring my dreams, I became interested in Jungian ideas of the collective unconscious and the possibility that images, symbols and patterns might connect us to experiences beyond our own lives. This gradually led me towards ancient art, archaeology and the visual languages of early civilisations.
I am fascinated by what remains when the stories behind objects and images are lost. Archaeological fragments can survive for thousands of years, while their original meanings, rituals and beliefs become impossible to fully recover. I use these traces as starting points for imaginative exploration, creating my own visual narratives and mythologies from fragments of the past.
My paintings often combine recognisable forms with ambiguous figures, symbols and dreamlike landscapes. Rather than illustrating a particular historical period or assigning fixed meanings to symbols, I allow different visual references to meet and transform. The resulting imagery exists somewhere between the familiar and the unknown, inviting viewers to bring their own associations and interpretations to the work.
For me, painting is a way of exploring questions that cannot always be answered through words. It is an ongoing process of discovery, connecting inner experience with the wider history of human imagination. Through these invented worlds, I explore what we inherit, what we forget, and how we continue to create stories about our origins and our place in the world.
Lived Experience
When I moved from Hungary to the UK at the age of 35, I never imagined that I would eventually become an artist. After ten years working as an architect, becoming a mother to twins and starting a new life in another country, I found myself questioning who I was and where I belonged. I began exploring these questions through my dreams, which gradually led me to Jungian ideas, ancient symbols and the possibility of a shared human memory. Art became a way of making sense of my own experiences and finding connections with something much older and bigger than myself. What started as a personal search has grown into an ongoing journey through imagined histories, forgotten stories and the mysteries of our origins.
EDUCATION
2016-20 MFA Fine Art, Nottingham Trent University, UK
2019-22 Catharsis Complex Art Therapy, LEA, Budapest, Hungary
2000-02 Anthroposophy, Napút Open University of Art, Budapest, Hungary
1992-97 MSc Architecture, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2024 Claire Peasnall Memorial Painting Award, St Hugh's Foundation for the Arts, UK
2023 National Cultural Fund of Hungary Grant, Hungary
2022 Develop Your Creative Practice Grant, Arts Council England
2022 Leicester Print Workshop Residency Grant
2020 Irene Fund Grant
2018 Hungarian Academy of Arts Special Professional Award
2018 and 2017 NTU MA Mastered Exhibition, MFA winner
2017 Lichfield Prize, finalist
2016 Nottingham Trent University Postgraduate Scholarship
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 Tapestries of Memory, Grantham House, Grantham, UK
2026 Invisible Inheritance, Art9 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2025 Myths and Dreams - Beyond Time, Harding House Gallery, Lincoln, UK
2025 Ancient Stories, Willoughby Memorial Gallery, Corby Glen, UK
2024 Time Immemorial, Newark Town Hall Museum & Art Gallery, Newark, UK
2024 Solo exhibition, St Martin's Gallery, Lincoln, UK
2024 Solo exhibition, Beeston Library, Nottingham, UK
2022 Dream Carpets, Érd Art Gallery, Érd, Hungary
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 London Art Biennale, London, UK
2025 Cross-Section, Liszt Institute, London, UK
2025 30th Anniversary Jubilee Exhibition, Society of Hungarian Painters, Vigadó, Budapest, Hungary
2024 LAS Exhibition, Usher Gallery, Lincoln, UK
2024 Time Stamp, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, UK
2024 MFT Exhibition, Heraklion Municipal Art Gallery, Heraklion, Greece
2023 Involved, Zygote Press, Cleveland, USA
2022 LAS Exhibition, Usher Gallery, Lincoln - shortlisted for the Oyler/Hayward Award
2021 Texture Printmaking Studio International Collaboration Project, Tainan City, Taiwan
2020 Lost Stories, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, UK
2020 Near and Far, Morlan Gallery, Lexington, USA; Droplets, HallSpace, Boston, USA
2019 International Art Prize, Palazzo Birago, Turin, Italy
2019 Human Condition, Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh; Uncharted Territory, Cambridge; Rituals and Rites, Artcore, Derby, UK
2018 Aftermath, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK
2018 Threads, Espacio Gallery; Focus on Identity, Piacere Gallery, London, UK
SELECTED RESIDENCIES
2024-25 Association of Hungarian Painters Residency, Uzsa, Hungary
2022-23 Érd Collective Art Residency, Érd, Hungary
2022 Leicester Print Workshop Residency, UK
2021 Artist Mentoring Programme, Real Creative Futures / New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
2021 KaposArt Residency, Szigetvár, Hungary
2018 ExperiMentor Orbit Programme, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
2018 International Artist Residencies, Törökbálint and Barcs, Hungary
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Exhibitions Manager, Willoughby Memorial Trust Gallery, Corby Glen, UK
Architectural practice, Hungary — approximately ten years prior to establishing a professional fine-art practice
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