BLUE MOUNTAINS GAZETTE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2003
BY SCOTT WARREN

LOCALS HEADED TO ITALY AFTER BEING SELECTED IN “OSCARS OF ART”

In the 30 years since his first exhibition at Sydney’s Russian Club, Tibor Murany has achieved a lot in the art world.
But everything he has ever achieved pales in comparison to a letter he has received in the email some weeks ago, informing him that he, along with fellow Blue Mountains artist Hilary Pollock, had been chosen to take a part in the 2003 Biennale of Florence.
Tibor told the Gazette the Biennale is like “The Oscars of Arts”. Artists cannot enter them selves in the awards/exhibition, they are invited to attend by a panel of scouts who scour the world of art trough publications and websites to find those artists they feel deserving of a prestigious spot in the Biennale.
And prestigious it is – of the hundreds of thousands of artists in the world only 891 are invited to each Biennale, which is judged by some of the most prominent art judges in the world.
Being invited to the Biennale is not only a great opportunity for me, it is a great networking opportunity to promote the Blue Mountains on a world scale, Tibor said.
This is definitely the most prestigious thing in my career.
Tibor has a series of paintings that he describes as “surreal, still life landscapes” in the Biennale.
The paintings feature “Spoons” on different coloured tables, reflecting light in different directions, each one different, but still similar, to the rest.
Tibor told the Gazette the views to the west from his Mount Riverview home and studio were a great inspiration to him, especially the different coloured light refracting off the afternoon fog and cloud.
He also said it was a tremendous shock to have been invited to the Biennale.
I had no idea this could happen, Tibor said. I had no idea that anyone had looked at my website.