First Solo Exhibition • Grace Hungarian Reformed Church • Tarzana, CA • 2012
At seventeen years old, I had my first solo exhibition—a milestone that connected my artistic journey with my Hungarian heritage and the memory of my mother. Collage Humanity featured drawings and paintings created throughout my childhood, displayed in the warm, welcoming space of Grace Hungarian Reformed Church in Tarzana, California.
This exhibition represented more than just my first solo show—it was a homecoming to the Hungarian community my mother had connected me with before her passing when I was nine. The Grace Hungarian Reformed Church had become a second home to my father and me, where we attended services conducted in Hungarian, maintaining our cultural connection until I left for college at eighteen.
The opportunity to share my artwork with this community felt like completing a circle. These were the people who had embraced us during our most difficult times, who had helped preserve our Hungarian identity in America, and who now witnessed my artistic expression as a young person coming of age within their fold.
Collage Humanity showcased a collection of drawings and paintings I had created throughout my childhood and teenage years. These works represented my artistic development from early experimentation to the more sophisticated expressions of a seventeen-year-old artist finding their voice.
The pieces explored themes of identity, belonging, and the human experience through the lens of a young person navigating between cultures—American and Hungarian, traditional and contemporary, child and emerging adult. Each work told part of my story, collectively forming a visual autobiography of my formative years.
Grace Hungarian Reformed Church in Tarzana served as more than just a venue—it was the heart of our Hungarian-American community in Los Angeles. Founded to preserve Hungarian language, culture, and Reformed Christian traditions, the church provided a sanctuary for immigrants and their families to maintain their heritage while building new lives in America. For our family, it represented continuity with my mother's legacy and a bridge between our past and future.
This exhibition marked the beginning of my understanding of art as a means of cultural preservation and personal expression. The Hungarian community's support and encouragement at this formative moment helped establish the foundation for my continued artistic practice, which would later expand into digital realms while maintaining its roots in traditional drawing and painting.
The experience of sharing my work with this community taught me that art serves not only as personal expression but as a bridge between generations, cultures, and experiences. It was here that I first understood the power of art to connect people across differences and to honor both individual vision and collective heritage.
Looking back, Collage Humanity represents more than just a first exhibition—it was a declaration of artistic intent and a tribute to the community that helped shape my identity. The support I received from the Hungarian congregation, the validation of seeing my work displayed in a space that held such personal significance, and the experience of presenting my art to an audience that knew my story all contributed to my understanding of art as both personal expression and community engagement.
This exhibition planted the seeds for everything that would follow in my artistic practice: the exploration of identity, the bridging of traditional and digital media, the commitment to authentic expression, and the understanding that art serves both individual vision and collective memory. At seventeen, in the warm embrace of the Grace Hungarian Reformed Church, my journey as a professional artist truly began.