Hello Dear visitor, my name is Vanda Berecz,

a contemporary leather artist based in Budapest, Hungary.

 

I started creating leather sculptures during the Covid lockdown, in 2020. With restrictions all around in the outer world, it was a period of reconnecting with the most sensitive parts inside of me. I learned how real strength can be found in softness, how rigid environments become bearable if we are supple, and how we can move past anxiety by becoming vulnerable. Leather or skin is the substance that separates the outer world from what is within. It offers protection: due to it’s softness it’s unbreakable, and it’s flexibility provides the freedom necessary for movement. These are the qualities that are also essential for our psychological and emotional adaptation to our environment.

 

During my university years I studied fashion design, and specialized on leather accessories early on. In the past 11 years I established my own studio, and focused my attention on sharpening craft skills, while creating bags and other accessories mainly for women. Rather than following fashion trends, my approach to creating objects has always been very sculptural. I enjoy experimenting with shapes, structures and unusual outlooks.

I like to think of my art as half poetry, half mathematics. The colors, textures, curves and organic shapes come from my emotional states, but the strict geometry and carefully calculated number and size of the elements, as well as the periodically repeated patterns are purely mathematical. Working with leather also requires a quite perfectionist approach. Everything needs to be well prepared and calculated before execution, because leather is easy to shape, but it doesn’t allow you to make mistakes. It’s a fascinating material, for me it represents truly feminine qualities: soft but resistant, adaptable yet very strong.

My artistic routine is concentration, repetition, and being fully immersed in the slow pace of creation. I’m inspired by spirituality, natural growth processes, biology, and man-made structures like origami, woven fabrics and architecture.