Matus Lanyi

Matúš Lányi is a star among the emerging Eastern European artists of the post-Berlin Wall generation.  Defying a simple classification, he is both, a daring modernist in his subject and attitude as well as a traditionalist with superb drafting skills- an heir to Andy Warhol's esthetic values, audaciousness and faith. Since the outset Lanyi has worked in a variety of media - from painting through sculpture, kinetic art, conceptual pieces using computer technology and organic matter to earth art, grouped in series.

IHS series

Devotional and sacral objects served as the main inspiration for Lányi’s IHS (Iesus Hominum Salvator) series oils, including Bikini, Crucify Me, Car, and the Kiss. Faithful to the objects’ artistry, Lányi uses his impeccable skills replicating their ornamental details and embellishments to create new banal every day objects of purely profane function. The objective is not to deprive original objects of their spiritual function, but to illustrate the way the contemporary consumer assigns spiritual prominence to such common objects and worships them.

In his work, Lányi draws on the same strong Slovak spiritual and iconographic tradition that impacted Andy Warhol -whose religious parents immigrated from the region -recall Warhol’s Gold Marilyn and over 100 “Last Supper” paintings in his estate.  (See Dillenberg, Jane D, The Religious Art of Andy Warhol, 1998; )

The size of Lányi’s oils (Bikini tondos are 67 inches in diameter, his Car is 5.2 ft. x 15 ft., Kiss 126 x 75 inch) as well as their format (tondo was traditionally reserved to the depiction of Holy Family and Madonna with Child) also play a significant role conveying, on the one hand, these objects’ new spiritual significance, on the other, serving as new consumer brands and their advertisement. 

His Car is set up at this fair to replicate a triptych, a three piece altar painting that would traditionally be a focal point in front of which all the significant spiritual work takes performed. 

These modern sacral motifs that find their origin in liturgical challis, monstrances or garments symbolize strong and exclusive emotional and spiritual “support” or direct spiritual connection with the consumer: wearer of the undergarments or the owner of the car.  At the same time they also reflect specific iconographic attributes and respect the time and the story line of iconographic presentation.

Thus, the IHS cycle emphasizes and juxtaposes spiritual and mundane.  It contrasts temporality and consumption, aesthetics of brands with iconographic essence of spiritual themes, thus directing our attention to concepts worthy of our contemplation, the biggest of which is the subject of life after death.

The main topic Matúš Lányi develops in his IHS series artworks, consisting mainly of paintings and videos, is Christian iconography.  He is probably the only Slovak and possibly the only Central European artist of the young generation who focuses on this topic as part of his artistic program.  He develops Christian topics that are the starting point of European art with a certain detachment and with the help of understandable and contemporary visual language.  He shifts the timeless ideas into new contexts and thus reflects on problems of the contemporary world. 

It could seem that Lányi's works incorporate irony and sarcasm,  criticism of religion or the Catholic Church. However, as a believer, Lányi does not want to shock in terms of a cheap effect.  On the contrary, he brings a different perspective and his works offer spectators an opportunity to ponder and meditate.

Overview of Matus Lanyi’s artwork

Hard Drives and Fragmentation (2015-)

In the series "Hard Drives" and "Fragmentation," Lányi continues his dialogue between the organic and the digital. For this body of work, Lanyi has moved away from traditional paint and instead uses organic materials like flower petals and leaves. He arranges these natural fragments in linear, data-like patterns on the canvas, reminiscent of the process of defragmenting a computer's hard drive. This series is an artistic response to the neo-Darwinian theory that views human life as a flow of genetic information. By using organic matter to mimic digital data, Lányi blurs the line between nature and technology, and invites us to contemplate the essence of life itself. Works from the series were shown at the gallery’s exhibition DNA: Divine Nature Awakens in Prague, Czech Republic.

IHS series (2013-)

The "IHS" series represents a compelling fusion of religious and commercial semiotics. Lányi co-opts the IHS monogram—a sacred abbreviation for Iesus Hominum Salvator—and other liturgical objects, such as chalices and monstrances, transforming them into commercial logos or patterns on contemporary objects. He depicts these symbols on items like bikini tops and car decals. This body of work is a trenchant commentary on how late-stage capitalism grants spiritual gravitas to everyday consumer goods, effectively turning brands into new objects of reverence. The series, far from being sacrilegious, is an incisive exploration of a society that has simultaneously desacralized traditional symbols while elevating consumer products to a quasi-religious status.

Ground Plans series (2009-)

Lányi's "Ground Plans" series is inspired by the intricate floor plans of medieval cathedrals. He transcribes these complex architectural blueprints onto his canvases. By focusing on the structural foundation of these sacred spaces, Lányi prompts us to reflect on the nature of our own present-day existence. He suggests that just as these historical buildings were meticulously planned and organized, so too is our current reality—even if its complexity makes it difficult to fully comprehend. The series is a meditative exploration of structure, history, and the underlying order of our world.

Windows series (2007-2011)

In his "Windows" series, Lányi re-contextualizes key biblical narratives using the familiar, pixelated vernacular of the Microsoft Windows operating system. He renders canonical scenes as system error messages, dialogue boxes, or command prompts on large-scale canvases. This series posits a critical question: how do we process and interact with profound spiritual truths when our primary mode of communication is fundamentally digital and transactional? The work forces a confrontation with the sterile, functional language of technology and its surprising capacity to frame even the most monumental of human experiences.