SR logóSonkodi Rita

About Me

"The painter's law is their own feeling." – Caspar David Friedrich

For me, these laws are decisive; I live among them, build with them, and raise walls around myself. Every canvas of mine preserves a part of my life as a document of my feelings. My works are imprints of memories, moments, and flashes. They are my personal objects and relics. I always paint what is within me at that moment.

I live as I paint, I paint what I live.

I sincerely want to speak about simple things. To discover beauty and ugliness and display them on canvas through re-experiencing… In the words of Tibor Déry, "creation is an attitude." I want to live as I paint and paint as I live.

Painting is somehow a fragment of a birth… When it is born, I feel relieved; from that moment on, I entrust it to its own life.
Sonkodi Rita portré

Professional Timeline

I was born in Szeged, Hungary.

1991

Graduated from Juhász Gyula Teacher Training College in Szeged, specializing in Drawing and Geography.

1991–1992

Worked at the Dési Artist Circle under the guidance of György Korga.

1992–1997

Graduated from the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts as a painter; my master was Gábor Dienes.

Since 2003

Teaching at the Faculty of Juhász Gyula Teacher Training College, University of Szeged.

2010

Earned DLA (Doctor of Liberal Arts) degree at the West University of Timișoara.

Works & Exhibitions:

1994

Altar painting of Saint John the Baptist for the church in Ajnácskő (Slovakia)

Exhibition "Sister Muses" – Architecture and related arts in the work of István Novák, Ybl Prize-winning architect – exhibition at the Móra Ferenc Museum, Szeged.

Budapest Bank watercolor competition prize

1999

Solo debut exhibition at the Gallery of the Móra Ferenc Museum, Szeged.

2000

Budapest: Újpest Gallery – solo exhibition

2001

Makó, József Attila Museum – solo exhibition

Watercolors of notable buildings in Szeged, commissioned by the City of Szeged

2002

Exhibition "Stations" – solo exhibition in the B-Gallery of the Bartók Béla Cultural Center, Szeged

then at the Headquarters of the Association of Hungarian Architects in Budapest: 14 panel paintings placed in a church in Brasov (Romania).

2013

Móra Ferenc Museum, Szeged – Solo exhibition titled "Muses"

2014

Alföld Gallery, Hódmezővásárhely – Retrospective exhibition titled "Halfway"

2022

Life of Mary – 14 panel paintings based on Rilke's poem cycle, permanent exhibition, Makó.

University with a Brush – 100 years of the University of Szeged, memorial exhibition.

2024

My Stories – retrospective exhibition, Szeged, Kiss Kunszt Gallery.

Sacred Artworks:

Ajnácskő (Slovakia), Church of the Nativity of Mary:

  • Saint John the Baptist altarpiece (1994)
  • Madonna with Child Jesus altarpiece (2000)

Brasov (Romania), Holy Cross Church:

  • The 14 Stations of the Cross – panel paintings (2002)

Szeged, Mother Teresa of Calcutta Church:

  • Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta altarpiece (2006)