Marcell Menyhárt: Plastic Frames as Sites of Memory
Marcell Menyhárt works with sculptural reliefs to confront artificial memory, loss, and humor through plastic systems and controlled material tension.
Between Loss, Plastic, and Reconstruction
Artist Focus – Sculpture & Wall-Based Objects
Marcell Menyhárt’s practice begins with a familiar yet overlooked object: the plastic frame left behind after model kits are assembled. These empty structures, designed to hold toy parts before they are removed, become the formal and emotional starting point of his work. What initially functioned as a personal act of recovery has expanded into a broader reflection on artificiality, material residue, and the afterlife of objects.
The sprue frame operates as both structure and boundary. Menyhárt does not abandon its logic but works within it, refilling voids with sculptural forms that hover between abstraction and figuration. Limbs, organic fragments, and hybrid shapes press against the rigid geometry of the frame, creating a tension between softness and constraint.
Color plays a decisive role here: saturated gradients and synthetic hues reinforce the artificial nature of the material while introducing a playful, almost disarming surface language.
Humor is present, but never decorative. It functions as a strategy of access, allowing the work to remain approachable while carrying deeper layers of absence and reconstruction. The contrast between natural references and industrial plastic is not resolved. Instead, Menyhárt keeps both states visible, letting artificiality remain exposed rather than disguised.
Within this framework, the works read as quiet acts of reassembly. They do not restore what was lost, but they refuse emptiness. What remains is a sculptural system that treats memory as something built, provisional, and visibly artificial.
Marcell Menyhárt Artworks: Sculpture Inside Artificial Systems
Marcell Dániel Menyhárt (left) Mimesis” (Detail) 120 x 82 x 8 cm 3d printed pla, aluminium, acrylic 2025 (right)
Marcell Dánie Menyhárt (left) Too hot(right) “Still Trapped” 70 x 61 cm 3d print, resin, aluminium, acrylic 2025 📷 Gábor Horváth
Artist in Focus is a new editorial series by Catapult - The New Munchies Art Club.
We spotlight new voices in contemporary art, from emerging practices to positions that demand attention.
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