Soma Bognar is a Brighton-based visual artist whose richly textured paintings blur the lines between comfort and grotesque. Drawing viewers into dreamlike worlds, his work mines the subconscious, fusing emotional intensity with visual complexity. Figures and forms emerge through pareidolia, echoing a dialogue between the artist’s inner landscape and the visceral act of painting.
Originally from Hungary, Bognar subtly weaves elements of Hungarian folklore and childhood mythology into his work, infusing it with narrative ambiguity.
Before fully embracing the visual arts, Bognar trained as a classical musician at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. By 2020, he had grown restless within the structured confines of classical music and turned to painting - a discipline he had first explored in childhood - as a more instinctive and liberating mode of expression. In 2025, he completed the Turps Banana Painting Programme in East Sussex, further honing his distinctive voice.
Bognar’s work has been included in a number of group exhibitions, including consecutive appearances at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition (2023 and 2024), Tremenheere Gallery in 2023 and Velarde Gallery in 2024.
Turps Off-Site Hastings Programme - 2024/205
2025
'Betwixt', General Assembly, London, UK
'Afterglow', HAF Gallery, St Leonards, UK
TURPS Hastings end-of-year exhibition, Rye Creative Centre, Rye, UK
'Passing Wanderers' with Leigh Curtis and R&F Mo, Brighton Art Space, Brighton, UK
2024
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, UK
Velarde Gallery, 'Paradise', Kingsbridge, UK
2023
Winter Show, Brighton Art Space, Brighton, UK
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, UK
Tremenheere Gallery, 'Rapture', Penzance, UK
'Rapture', The Regency Town House, Brighton, UK
2022
Six Foot Gallery, Summer Exhibition, Glasgow, UK
Tinimini Room, Online Group Exhibition @tinimini_room
2021
'The Absurd', Crypt Gallery, London, UK
Artsinsquare Magazine - Issue 4