Attila Konnyu: Equilibrium Exhibition in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Pullman Dubai Creek City Centre
October 2022
About the Event
The exhibition Equilibrium by Hungarian-born American artist Attila Konnyu, presented at Pullman Dubai Creek City Centre, marked a pivotal moment in the artist’s decades-long inquiry into the metaphysical intersections of gesture, color, and spatial harmony.
Comprising ten large-scale oil paintings conceived specifically for the 10,000-square-foot exhibition space, the show functioned not merely as a presentation of recent work, but as a sustained visual meditation on the concept of balance - cosmic, emotional, and ecological.
Konnyu’s practice has long operated at the interstice of abstraction and phenomenology. As a multidisciplinary artist, his work draws from fields as diverse as architecture, performance, and spiritual inquiry.
His commitment to the expressive capacity of non-figurative form echoes the traditions of mid-20th-century lyrical abstraction and gestural abstraction, yet his aesthetic trajectory remains distinctly contemporary in its emphasis on energetic resonance and the performative act of painting.
Each canvas in Equilibrium serves as a field of accumulated gestures - layered applications of oil pigment, often in contrasting chromatic intensities - that evoke both the turbulence and serenity inherent in processes of transformation. This body of work stands firmly within the realm of contemporary abstract painting while offering a contemplative expansion of its formal vocabulary.
The notion of equilibrium, central to the exhibition’s conceptual framework, should be understood in both philosophical and material terms. Konnyu articulates balance not as a static state, but as an ongoing negotiation between forces - a dialectical condition revealed through visual tension, compositional counterpoint, and formal restraint.
The paintings oscillate between explosion and control, invoking a kind of painterly choreography that reflects the artist’s deep engagement with both Eastern and Western metaphysical systems. The exhibition itself took on the qualities of installation art, activating the space through scale, rhythm, and spatial harmony.
About the Event
Of particular note was the integration of a parallel artistic performance: a culinary experience created by Executive Chef Mathias Roziro, whose gastronomic interpretations of Konnyu’s visual language offered visitors a multisensory extension of the exhibition’s central themes.
In this context, the curatorial gesture became cross-disciplinary, situating the visual arts within a broader field of embodied, sensory knowledge. The collaboration underscored the artist’s ambition to create spaces of harmony not only through visual means, but through the synthesis of taste, atmosphere, and affect.
As a multidisciplinary artist, Attila Konnyu is known for creating immersive environments that blend visual art, performance, and sensorial experience. This exhibition extended his interest in installation art into the realm of culinary and spatial perception.
Konnyu’s opening remarks, delivered with characteristic humility and philosophical clarity, framed the exhibition within the socio-cultural context of Dubai itself. His reflections on the city’s rapid development, cosmopolitan identity, and aspirational modernity positioned Equilibrium as both homage and critique - a recognition of Dubai’s future-oriented ethos, paired with a quiet reminder of the inner balance needed to sustain such momentum.
From a curatorial standpoint, Equilibrium challenged conventional exhibition methodologies. The scale of the works demanded a rethinking of spatial relationships within the gallery, while the thematic resonance of the content invited viewers into a slower, more contemplative mode of engagement.
In an era marked by sensory overload and accelerated image consumption, Konnyu’s insistence on slowness - on presence, on attentive looking - felt not only timely, but essential.
We are deeply grateful to Attila Konnyu for his generous artistic vision, and to the Pullman Dubai Creek City Centre team, particularly Cluster General Manager Mr. Nishan Silva, for enabling the realization of this ambitious project.
Equilibrium remains a landmark contribution to international art exhibitions - a showcase of contemporary abstract painting brought into dialogue with space, perception, and the full range of human sensation.
Prof. Dr. Gyongyi Konyu-Fogel, PhD, DBA
Executive Chef Methias Roziro showcases an exquisite dining experience inspired by the Artworks of Attila Konnyu
Amuse-Bouche
Energy of Life
Home-cured Atlantic salmon, wasabi sour cream, daikon curls, dried pickled ginger
First Course
The Birth of Life
Ceylon green tea–infused beluga caviar, winter char-grilled watermelon
Mid-Course
Power of Nature
Pan-seared sea scallops, green apple–celery jelly, lime cream
Paired with Ceylon Silver Tips white tea
Sorbet
Heavenly Force
Wood apple, calamansi pearls
Entrée
Ancient Power
Grade 5 Wagyu tenderloin, potato pavé, caramelized shallot, winter vegetables, fresh autumn black truffle
Dessert
The Vitality
Summer cassia blueberry, mango, passion fruit, pistachio crumble
Paired with the first Ceylon Oolong leaf tea
Wine Pairings
Trimbach Riesling, Alsace, 2020
Château Église d'Armens, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru, 2019
Critical Acclaim
A Multisensory Exploration of Culinary Art and Aesthetic Form
A Curated Presentation of Edible Art as Performance
Thematic Framing:
In Attila Konnyu: Gala Dinner and Dessert, Dubai, the boundaries between visual art, gastronomy, and performance are purposefully dissolved. This immersive experience is conceived not merely as a meal, but as a living artwork - one that engages the full sensorium while evoking the ceremonial nature of both fine dining and contemporary art practice.
Konnyu, renowned for his precision and conceptual rigor, approaches the culinary medium as a sculptural and temporal form. Each course functions as an ephemeral composition, designed to provoke reflection on transience, memory, and the aesthetics of consumption. The act of eating becomes participatory performance; the plate, a canvas; the guest, both viewer and collaborator.
Set against the cosmopolitan backdrop of Dubai, the event underscores the global hybridity of cultural expression today. In this context, food becomes language - capable of conveying emotion, structure, history, and innovation simultaneously.
By presenting Gala Dinner and Gala Dessert as discrete but dialogic interventions, the artist invites contemplation on the modularity of the dining ritual: its narrative arc, its formal tensions, and its potential as a site of conceptual engagement. This is not merely a fusion of art and cuisine - it is a proposition for how art might inhabit life more completely, sensually, and deliberately.
– Prof. Dr. Gyongyi Konyu-Fogel, PhD, DBA
