17-19 Cockspur St, London SW1Y 5BL
The Liszt Institute, Hungarian Cultural Centre London, is proud to present TO BE CURIOUS — A Glance at Hungarian Contemporary Photography, a group exhibition by TOBE Gallery Budapest.
Contemporary photography is always fertile ground for curiosity: it raises questions, responds sensitively to the present, and offers new perspectives on interpreting reality. The exhibition TO BE CURIOUS — A Glance at Hungarian Contemporary Photography presents works by artists such as Máté Bartha, Kincső Bede, Anna Fabricius, Ádám Magyar, Katharina Roters, Júlia Standovár, and Wanda Martin, who, through different approaches yet with a shared sensitivity, engage with important issues of our time.
Their works move along the boundary between personal and collective experience: questions of identity, layers of memory, and the uncertainties and tensions of the present all emerge in them. The images do not merely document, but also interpret and reorganise, while creating space for quiet observation and reflection.
Here, curiosity is not only an attitude, but also a method: a tool for understanding, doubt, and discovery. The exhibition invites viewers not to seek ready-made answers, but to approach what they see with openness and sensitivity, connecting with the works through their own questions.
Join us for the exhibition opening on Tuesday, 19 May, 6.30 - 8.30 PM. The evening will include a book presentation by Wanda Martin on her photography book, The Ballad of Eternal Youth. Opening remarks by TOBE Gallery. RSVP via Eventbrite.
Programme:
6.30 PM Doors open
7.00 PM Book presentation by Wanda Martin
The exhibition is on view 20 May - 12 June 2026, Mondays - Fridays 11.00 AM - 6.00 PM.
Exhibiting artists:
About Wanda Martin
Wanda Martin is a photographer and creative director working across fashion, portrait, and music photography. Wanda is based between London and Budapest but constantly traveling for work — frequently to Paris, Los Angeles, and other cultural hubs. Personal inspiration has always played a central role in Wanda’s work: painterly visuals and the world of the Pre-Raphaelites blend with musical subcultures, especially the aesthetics of rock’n’roll and punk.
She is the creative director of FOXES Magazine, and regularly collaborates with major record labels such as Sony Music and Universal, including for long-term projects like her work with Aurora in the last two years.
She continues to dedicate time to her personal, conceptual projects, photo books and exhibitions such as The Ballad of Eternal Youth— a conceptual, documentary-style series created in collaboration with her father — and her self-portrait project, “Songs of Innocence and Experience”, started during the lockdown.
Wanda is a Canon Europe Ambassador since 2019.
About TOBE Gallery
TOBE Gallery was founded in Budapest in October 2013 by Tomas Opitz and Bea Puskás with the aim of creating a platform with international visibility for Hungarian and Ibero-American contemporary artists. The gallery primarily focuses on photography and photo-based art; the artists it represents combine a commitment to high artistic quality with an experimental approach. With its distinctive profile, the gallery has been an indispensable presence on the Hungarian photography scene for more than a decade. TOBE Gallery currently represents 20 artists, including both established and emerging figures.
The mission of TOBE Gallery is to promote, present, and popularise contemporary photography as widely as possible. To this end, in recent years it has participated in numerous major international fairs and festivals, including Paris Photo, Unseen Amsterdam, and Photo London. The gallery’s credo is that photography is an equal partner to any other artistic discipline. Many of the artists it represents work across multiple media, at times seeking to present image-making techniques in ways that are non-hierarchical and inseparable.
TOBE Gallery began operating in November 2017 on Bródy Sándor Street, Budapest; the new and larger gallery space provides an opportunity to make the work of international artists more visible on the Budapest scene, while also helping to place contemporary Hungarian photography in an international context. Since 2022, TOBE has had two exhibition spaces: the larger gallery primarily showcases photographers, while the TOBE Cabinet space hosts more pop-up-style exhibitions and events. The new gallery, called TOBE Project, focuses on exploring the dynamic interactions between different branches of visual art—such as painting, video art, and sculpture. The project gallery represents five artists but also collaborates closely with many others.
The founders believe that TOBE Gallery not only strengthens the international presence of Hungarian photography but has also made a significant contribution to Hungary’s cultural and artistic reputation in recent years. In light of these achievements, they consider regular international appearances to be very important. One of the highlights of 2026 for them is their return to Photo London, one of the world’s leading photography fairs, where they previously participated with great success in 2019. One of the main reasons for their return is this year’s Central and Eastern European focus at the fair, where they will be the only Hungarian gallery, presenting six Hungarian artists who are already recognised on the international scene.