10 Questions with Judit Nagy L.
Judit Nagy L. was born in Slovakia and started drawing at a very early age. Her kindergarten teacher was the first to recognise her painting skills and acknowledge her talent, and she became a great supporter of her creativity.
Judit earned a master's degree in civil engineering, built a beautiful family life, and started her own business, but she still felt that something was missing in her life. When she was 40 years old, she made the decision to go on a pilgrimage to the Camino de Santiago. Just like in the film, the 42-day hike on the Way of St. James changed her life forever: she plucked up the courage to pursue her passion and start painting again. Today she lives and works in Switzerland and has developed her own unique mixed media process: she paints with wine, earth, resonance gouache colours with homeopathic information, real crystals, and pearl, acrylic colours with extremely high pigmentation.
Judit invented her method in 2015 and called it "IVVArt - In Vino Veritas Art Method ©". Most recently, she received the International Carravagio Art Prize for Grand Masters of Art in Milan and left in May 2022 to realise her next project in an art residence in Sicily dedicated to volcanic wines.
She was included by a prestigious art jury in a special edition of Gold List Award Artists and Fine Art Photographers #7 of Israeli Art Market Magazine.
Judit Nagy L. - Portrait
ARTIST STATEMENT
Judit Nagy L - LNJ, tends to create a magic of art with real wine and earth from the vineyards, and she is a pilgrim to Compostela, Spain. The artist tells us that she is not only a painter but a creative person who is guided by inspiration and deeply aware that "painting, like all creative activities, is a tool that leads to self-expression and self-development", while "we do not 'create', but rather we are a collaborator in the process of creation that we embody".
When she turned 50, a desire grew in her: she wanted her art to have even more to do with the elemental: with people, the earth, relationships, and the diversity of horizontal and reciprocal connections - with the "something" that is difficult or impossible to put into words. As she prepares to travel to Sicily (in May 2022) and begin her art project "Etna and Her Wines" "in vivo" on the island, it becomes increasingly clear to her that the quest, her search for the essence of the experience of the whole, is to achieve creativity in the nutshell of necessity: to create with lines, surfaces and with colours that beguile (even when used minimally), "highly musical" and always (seemingly) without effort.
Judit is a mixed media painter who paints with real wine and soil samples from vineyards, using her unique IVVArt method © to create portraits (called WINEporTRAIT-s) of selected wines. When working on the portraits of spirits (schnapps, brandy, gin, etc.), she uses spices directly from distilleries to create a visual story of high-quality drinks that belong to a piece of art called "Art of the Spirit - Spirit of Art - Art is Spirit". Judit likes to work with found objects and transform them into high-quality, recyclable artworks, which she calls ReMixArt.
Brother Sun, Sister Moon, WINEporTRAIT, 2018 © Judit Nagy L.
Limited edition art collectors’ book
INTERVIEW
First of all, why are you an artist, and how would you define yourself as an artist today?
I am an artist because I was born to be one. Visual creativity is my destiny - it's really so simple. And it is something you feel in the deepest part of your being, with all the cells of your body.
I define myself first and foremost as a wine painter (and taster) who always tend to bring a touch of surprise and whimsy to her work. My passion is to capture the personality of the chosen wine and the soil of the particular winery, while creating its complex personal visual story. The works from this art category are called WINEporTRAIT - s.
I am also a photographer, a viewfinder who captures the dances of light and shadow with a high sensitivity to detail, focusing mainly on nature. Trees, the sky, water drops, and dandelions are my favourite subjects.
What is your personal aim as an artist?
I see my artistic activity as a kind of peacemaking action. I want to spread harmony and draw people's attention to something beautiful. I want to touch hearts and sometimes evoke questions in the viewer that can lead to open communication: between all of us or within ourselves, which I believe is always very important for personal and collective development and positive changes.
For me, the sale of my works is more than a simple act of trade: I want to give collectors - in addition to a certificate of authenticity, which is an obligatory part of the artwork - the exclusive right to a lifetime of personal pleasure.
You come from an engineering background, what inspired you to become an artist?
As I mentioned in my answer to the first question, I consider myself a born artist. I remember very well the first years of my life when I was only four years old: I played in our big garden and built villages out of clay, or I drew and painted, then designed something out of paper, plasticine, in some years later also out of fabric and leather.
Parallel to high school (we call it Gymnasium with four not easy years of study), I attended an art school and was also mentored by an artist in my hometown in one private studio. I was preparing to study at one of the art universities in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, but some factors in my life influenced me a lot and changed my path. Therefore, a few years later, I graduated as a civil engineer in Yugoslavia (now Serbia). I never really stopped being an artist. While I was studying at university, I joined a private art studio nearby and participated in group exhibitions. I needed art like you need oxygen.
But my real comeback happened much later. First, I had to walk the Camino in Spain and find the strength to change many things. The pilgrimage took place in 2011 and was the biggest accelerator to break out of the wrong way of life and find myself again. For me, of course, it meant being able to fully define myself as an artist. To accept and believe in me - after so many years of denying the truth and trying to be someone else just to be accepted by the environment. And lo and behold, here I am!
On the Camino, I learned that real wine is not just a simple alcoholic beverage but an art in itself. So it happened that, step by step, I fell in love with the idea "ART meets WINE - WINE is ART" (that's the slogan of our IVVArt project), and I also met the love of my life, Stefan. Both "projects" needed a lot of faith, will, and trust to bring them under one roof a few years later. Today we are married, a couple in private, and also business partners.
Where do you get inspiration for your work?
From everyday life: through the observation of people, nature, and more and more often through meditation, when I automatically feel drawn to my current images, I work on them. It is a very impressive creative process that I enjoy very much.
Crossing the River of Changes, 100x100x4 cm, 2022 © Judit Nagy L.
You invented the “IVVArt - In Vino Veritas Art Method”. Tell us more about it, what is your creative process like? And how did you evolve this way of working?
As a special form of art, I create mixed media art using real wine, liquor, soil from the vineyards, and spices. The following is an explanation of the terms I have developed for my painting techniques:
WINEporTRAIT© - is created with real wine and soil from the exact vineyard. It is a portrait of the wine itself: how I ‘see’ and feel the wine after tasting it. This process was developed by myself and requires good technical knowledge and a longer time to create. I have called this style IVVArt - In Vino Veritas Art Method©. The COA includes a written report of the painting process and the data of the wine.
Winepainting - can include more than one wine paste, and the COA does not include details of the wine(s).
ReMixArt - is a type of up-cycling or re-recycling art where something new and special, or even exclusive, is created from old materials.
Spirit of Art - Art of Spirit - Art is Spirit - this is a further development of the IVVArt method©, in which I use spirits (gin, raspberry brandy, etc.) and real spices directly from the distillery.
+: Acrylic on stretched canvases and smaller contemporary installations or drawings on paper are also part of my artistic portfolio.
What aspect of your work do you pay particular attention to?
To all of them. And if I had to choose one, the most important would be that I remain authentic and honest.
Sempre Vivo (PASSOROSSO 2019), white stretched canvas, museum quality, 120 x 90 x 2 cm, 2019 © Judit Nagy L.
Is there a piece you consider a "breakthrough" in your career?
Basically, the last finished work of art gives me the feeling of a "breakthrough", maybe because I always go beyond my last limits, even if only with a small step forward, but that's how it has to be. You have to work with great attention, know the materials and techniques and also try something new sometimes. There must be an evolution to become better as an artist.
Here is an example: "Sempre Vivo" (PASSOROSSO 2019)
It started with the light.
We came from Noto on Etna and drove up to the Franchetti winery. The sparkling sunlight on the beach began to change subtly as we got higher. It seemed filtered, as if it was no longer just coming from above, concentrated, but scattered, enveloping everything, as if the light was even coming from the ground. This quasi-subtle web of light was new to me.
Wine tasting. Passorosso 2019.
The results of the professional wine tasting are available to all on the internet. In any case, they are not decisive for the creation of WINEporTRAIT - s, but the images that the wine evoked in me. The wine tasting was a moving experience for me. The raw power of the Passorosso was contrasted with a shocking experience from the very first tasting: The clash of forces previously unknown to me reminded me of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor. During subsequent tastings, for example, during the week of the artist's residency in Sicily, which was dedicated to getting to know the soil and wine (holistically, not just technically), or in my studio in Switzerland, where I made wine pastes for artworks, I discovered many nuances that emerged during the time of the artwork.
The volcanic soil itself.
I saw its texture, its colour. I could smell it. I touched it, crushed it between my fingers. It was a powerful and important experience.
The people.
I listened to their words and the space behind their words.
We had very little time for physical interaction, I tried to be completely open to absorbing the energy that plays such an important role in winemaking: the human factor.
A portrait of wine.
Its majesty, Mount Etna with its lava flows, contradictions and differences in altitude, the constant threat of another eruption - the unique local conditions, the labour-intensive winemaking process, and the constant readiness and decision-making situation for people - all led me to create PASSOROSO's WINEportTRAIT in this way: I chose the style of abstract expressionism to demonstrate the spirit of the place as dramatically as possible. To do this, I chose a nocturnal eruption scenario in which the "steady" stars of the night sky can "only" twinkle gently.
Etna, the giver and snatcher of life: where the fresh lava slopes slowly turn into solidified and oxidised ones, I have installed an oval enamel, a unique work of art, a woman spinning at the foot of the volcano. The matte black hand reaching forward symbolises Contrada-s. I used the most matte black acrylic paint in the world to achieve this effect from every angle. The fingers end in the winery, and there the green colours shine. To harmonise the composition, at the bottom right of the diagonal is the second oval enamel, a unique work of art, an angel with golden grapes facing the summit of Mount Etna. He stands for protection and blessing.
Working on this artwork, I was carrying Andrea Franchetti's words in my head: "There's no mould, no moss; the ground sparkles black like the night. During the day, a soft light penetrates everything, and there are starry nights; Etna has enormous poetry. Making wine, you have to access it. There isn't Mother Nature here. You are conducting your viticulture on stuff that comes out of the terrible below."
The bright red stripe almost disturbingly frames the absolutely dramatic darkness of the image. This is rounded off by the gold acrylic frame, which is applied in three different shades of gold.
My aim was to complete and wrap up the visual story, as Franchetti does with the bottling of his PASSOROSSO.
Cloud Felhö, WINEporTRAIT, 120x100 cm © Judit Nagy L.
BLUE VELVET, 120x120x4 cm, 2020 © Judit Nagy L.
What do you think about the art community and market? And how did your perception change over the last couple of years, due to the pandemic and NFT surge?
Many art communities remind me of closed VIP clubs that have their own rules and regulations and select artists according to their own criteria. After some time, I gave up trying to be good enough for someone who is in a momentary position and has the right to judge the artistic qualities of others.
In my opinion, the art market is like all other markets, with a relatively large dynamic that is sometimes manipulated to make greater profits. What I like very much is that new art is very colourful, often sensational for my sensors, with great works of art.
The worldwide shutdown has pushed the art market to the online platform and has opened the doors wildly to make a self-presentation very easy, fast, and effective. The NFT wave has left me cold. True art has nothing to do with it. True art must be felt; it is a communicator and can never be a simple chain of numbers and letters. Like trying to close/freeze air, mineral water, or food into an NFT. That is an impossible task. And has nothing to do with the LIFE we are supposed to live on this planet.
It could be that I am old-fashioned and not flexible enough, but I want my creations to be seen. The only way for someone to do NFT with my artwork would be to buy the copyrights as well.
What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future?
I'm preparing for the next exciting project now. In this case, it's a story from Tuscany. I will create a portrait of the wine from Il Palagio winery, owned by Sting and his wife Trudie. The wine is called "Message in the Bottle".
After this WIENporTRAIT, the next project is an Art of Spirit project, a portrait of Mandarin, Orange, and Lemon spirits from a local distillery we used to work with. I painted a portrait of their gin called "Blue Velvet" and another one with raspberry spirit as well.
Maya, the Goddess of Illusion, WINEporTRAIT © Judit Nagy L.
Anything exciting you can tell us about?
My artist name is Judit Nagy L. or LNJ, which is my signature that you will find handwritten on all my original works. I added the letter "L." to my maiden name (which is very common in Central Europe, especially in Hungary) as a tribute to my great-grandfather (Lantody), who originally came from France. I am a kind of human cuvée: I belong to the Hungarian minority from my fatherland, the Slovak Republic, and I have been living permanently in Switzerland since 2015.
But here's something I haven't revealed until now: There's another reason I added the "L" to my original name: There's another artist about ten years younger with the same name who lives and works in my old hometown. She signs her work in the same style as I used to. I appreciate her art very much (I am even a collector of her art), so I decided to make this change in my signature in order not to have conflicts after some time.
And lastly, what is one piece of advice you would give to an emerging artist?
Do your work. Find your voice. Practice self-reflection. Take a break. Start again.
