BIO
ZsOKA (b. 1986, Jászberény, Hungary) is a contemporary neo-figurative artist whose emotionally charged steel works explore the intricate connections between mental health, self-reflection, and personal transformation. Drawing on a deep fascination with neuroscience and quantum science, her practice investigates the unseen inner landscapes where identity, memory, and emotion converge.
Central to her work is the female form, used as a symbol of vulnerability, resilience, and psychological complexity. Her steel surfaces are not mere canvases but active participants—sculpted, scorched, and layered through a process combining industrial craftsmanship with intimate mark-making. Using grinders, welders, pigments, chalk, oils, and ink, ZsOKA transforms steel into textured, multidimensional spaces that reflect the tension between presence and absence, rupture and healing.
Alongside figurative panels, her steel box sculptures extend this exploration into themes of containment, memory, and inner dialogue, acting as vessels for personal and collective stories.
Raised in Hungary and influenced by her mother, art and drama teacher Irén Lukácsiné Forgács, ZsOKA’s formal training in ceramics at Kandó Kálmán School for the Arts provided a foundation for her innovative approach to material and form. Since relocating to Toronto in 2012, she has focused on painting directly on steel—integrating welding, grinding, and burn-through techniques to create works that embody the complex interplay of body, mind, and spirit.
Her work serves as a visual journal of transformation—a space where scientific inquiry meets emotional truth, inviting viewers into a contemplative dialogue about self-awareness and healing. Recognized for her unique synthesis of concept and craft, ZsOKA received the Professional Development for Artists grant from the Canada Council for the Arts (Explore and Create program) in 2025, which supported her ongoing exploration of metalworking techniques and expanded creative possibilities.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Steel, once the foundation of my construction career, is now the surface through which I articulate the complexities of the human experience. In my work, the figure—especially the female form—appears not merely as subject, but as symbol: of strength, fracture, silence, and transformation. I situate my practice within the contemporary neo-figurative movement, where the body is not rendered for realism alone, but as a conduit for emotional depth and inner exploration.
Each piece begins with industrial-grade steel, which I shape using power tools, grinders, and burn techniques. Through a tactile process of etching, layering, and burning, I infuse the metal with texture, memory, and movement. I then apply a hybrid palette of graffiti paint, oil, ink, markers, pigment, pencil, and chalk, allowing the figure to emerge and recede depending on light and perspective. Negative space, including intentional voids and burn-throughs, carries equal weight—acting as moments of rupture, reflection, or silence.
My work is informed by self-inquiry, neuroscience, and quantum thought—disciplines that question how we perceive identity, time, and internal transformation. These ideas take visual form in the Enigma series: a wordless journal inscribed in steel. Each composition becomes a reflective entry; the figure acts as a personal glyph, while the surrounding space holds what can’t be spoken. These works invite viewers into a quiet dialogue with their own inner worlds.
By fusing craftsmanship and abstraction, industrial materials and intimate mark-making, I aim to challenge assumptions about both medium and meaning. I want to reframe steel—not as a cold, impersonal surface, but as one capable of holding softness, memory, and vulnerability. Through this synthesis, my art affirms the body as a powerful site for storytelling—especially now, as we continually reconstruct who we are.
