Born in 1988 in Pécs, Máté Dobokay lives and works in Budapest. He studied at the University of Pécs and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Photography from the University of Kaposvár. Since his university years, he has questioned the very foundations of the photographic medium, constantly seeking its intersections with other art forms, particularly painting.

His artistic research continues the long-standing Hungarian tradition of pushing the boundaries of photography through extensive experimentation. Often working without a camera, he explores the raw materials, chemical reactions, and physical structures of the photographic process. Photosensitive paper becomes a space for experimentation, light a brush, and the image a subject of inquiry where photography is simultaneously an object, an image, and a process.

Dobokay’s work spans experimental, abstract, and concrete photography, and can be seen as a form of fundamental research, drawing connections to both scientific inquiry and linguistic structures. His practice aims to expand the limits of the medium, creating new links between photography and other disciplines, and exposing what usually remains hidden.

He has received numerous awards and grants, and was the youngest artist included in the New York exhibition IMPACT: Abstraction & Experiment in Hungarian Photography alongside László Moholy-Nagy in 2016. In 2018, he was awarded the MODEM Prize. His work has been exhibited widely across Europe, in both solo and group exhibitions, within galleries and major institutions.

SOLO SHOWS

2024 ”Spots”, Camera-Cluj, Centrul de Interes, Cluj-Napoca, România
2023 ”Leftovers”, Studio Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2022 ”Révelation(s)”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2022 ”SHC”, acb Attachment, Budapest, Hungary
2022 ”Erosion”, privat place, Budapest, Hungary
2021 “AgGregation”, Pince, Budapest, Hungary
2020 ”Fixation”, Igor Metropol, Budapest, Hungary
2019 ”Density”, acb Attachment, Budapest, Hungary
2019 ”Ag”, Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, Budapest, Hungary
2017 ”Post painterly-abstraction”, Várfok Project Room, Budapest, Hungary

GROUP SHOWS

2024 Paris Photo, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2024 ”What Year Are You?", Public Collection Exhbition, MODEM, Debrecen, Hungary
2023 ”OSAS Plus No.2”, Vasarely Museum, Budapest, Hungary
2023 “Like You and Me”, Mai Mano House, Budapest, Hungary
2023 ”Helmer Transformations”, IKON, Musée Ferenczy, Szentendre, Hungary
2022 ”Youhu”, Kieselbach Gallery and Auction House, Budapest, Hungary
2022 ”Rorschach Image”, Dubniczay Palace, Veszprém, Hungary
2022 ”Substraction”, Martyn Ferenc Gallery, House of Arts and Literature, Pécs, Hungary
2020 ”Among Highlights - Selection of Masterpieces”, Kieselbach Gallery and Auction House, Budapest, Hungary
2019 ”Substance”, MODEM, Debrecen, Hungary
2019 “Bauhaus 100 – Programme for the Future”, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
2019 “Bauhaus 100”, Vasarely Museum, Budapest, Hungary
2019 “Anatomy of photography”, Rómer Flóris Museum, Győr, Hungary
2019 “Scale, New Budapest Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2019 ”Distracting Modernity”, Sopa Gallery, Kosice, Slovakia

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2022 Budapest Gallery - Cité International des Arts Artists Exchange Program, Paris, France
2021 Visegrad Fund residency in FUTURA, Prague, Czech Republic
2021 Artists' Colony of Szentendre, Szentendre, Hungary
2019 Hungarian Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy
2019 Artists' Colony of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
2018 First Prize, MODEM-award, Debrecen, Hungary
2018 First Prize, Budapest Photo Festival Portfolio Review, Budapest, Hungary
2017 Shortlisted, Esterházy Art Award, Budapest, Hungary
2017 Residency Under Investigation, Bratislava, Slovaquie
2016 Teacher Mobility, Erasmus +, Tartu, Estonia
2015 Minister of Education awards the Fellowship granted by the Republic, Hungary
2015 Semi-Finalist, Leopold Bloom Award, Budapest, Hungary
2015 Second Prize, National Art Student Conference (OMDK), BKF, Budapest, Hungary
2014 Group Prize, ON_AWARD, OFF_festival Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
2014 Fotóporta portfolio review, second prix, FUGA Architectural Center, Budapest, Hungary
2014 Nominated, Lucien Hervé et Rodolf Hervé Prix, Paris, France
2013 Campus Hungary team scholarship – research of Cluj artists medial representations, Cluj Napoca, Romania

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS 

BnF, Paris, France
Ferenczy Museum Centrum, Szentendre, Hungary
MODEM, Debrecen, Hungary