Known for his wavy characters and psychedelic range of texture and colour Gabor Bata is a Montreal-based illustrator, whose work will transport you to a whole other world. He does everything from comics to book design, and article illustrations as well.

We caught up with him about creative influences, strange art exhibits, and how to get over art block.

Also Cool Mag: How did art first enter your life? Was it something that was always there, or did you find it later on? 

Gabor Bata: I was sort of in a special situation where my parents actually encouraged me to go into the arts, even at a young age, and continue to do so today. Art was always a big part of my life, and it was usually a very giving dynamic. 

My parents always had art books lying around the house or would take my brother and I to galleries. I remember one, in particular, was this show in Ottawa when I was about 9, called Portrait of the Artist as Clown. It was all these kitschy paintings, drawings, sculptures, photos, and videos of clowns. I feel like I must’ve made such a huff about not wanting to go because the last thing I think a 9-year-old wants is to be trapped in a museum full of clowns on a Saturday. Great idea for a horror movie, but ya know. My folks insisted. One installation in particular that has always stayed with me was this strange, very sensual video of this half-nude queer clown doing a trapeze act. 

While I’m sure it was all aggressively incomprehensible to me at the time, stuff like that opened me up pretty early on to how diverse and limitless art could be. I never would’ve thought of that as art until then. My scope had changed, and I think it’s important for any kid getting into art to have an experience like that. Preferably without the clowns, though. 

AC: Your personal style is so unique and has a great variety of textures and colour. How did you find your style, and how has it evolved over the years? 

Gabor Bata: Comics and cartoons were as always the backbones of my work. I never really got over them or felt like once I was going into art school that I had to “grow up” and move on. I’ve become less interested in creating straightforward cartoons and comics in the last two years and more interested in exploring their abstraction: the shapes and the colours, the visual language. So much of those elements alone can tell a story. 

Those were what had always appealed to me, and made me feel so at home in those worlds. Removing a piece of dialogue, the linework from a drawing, letting forms breathe and bubble, and stretching across those familiar panel grids and geometric lines creates something more involved and emotional. It actually gives you a lot more through suggestion, instead of creating a full scene with fully formed characters and speech bubbles with dialogue that tells you these blobs are mad or depressed or haunted or heartbroken or whatever. The work would all be done then, and there’d be nothing left for the viewer to interpret for themselves. 

AC: Where do you go for inspiration? Either online, or IRL? 

Gabor Bata: Movies are a big inspiration. Seeing all of these separate elements coming together, the images, the pacing, the music, combined to elevate and flesh out a singular statement is really magical. I’ve recently been on this Wim Wenders kick, and his films are like my new obsession. He finds a way of creating worlds you just sink into. I just rewatched Paris, Texas and am planning on catching Until The End Of The World, and wow, now does that film have a killer soundtrack. 

Julee Cruise, Nick Cave, Talking Heads, good grief! I haven’t watched it yet, maybe it’ll be terrible, and I’ll regret bringing it up here, but the music has already made me soar and brought me to another place. It just isn’t the same thing for me when I’m drawing or painting. 

When I’m creating, I have a pretty particular idea of the voices, the sounds and the music I associate with the image. Still, no one else will ever really know those things or have access to it the way you would with a movie. Some galleries and installations try doing that, with audio playing in the gallery, or the lights flickering or something to elevate the pieces, but it always just feels like you’re in a sad version of Disney Land. Some works really have the ability to transport you, though, and that’s something I always aspire to. 

AC: What do you do when you hit an art block? What helps you get over it? 

Gabor Bata: If I need a boost, I’ll do things that I’m uncomfortable with or shitty at, or try something I can’t rely on my laurels to accomplish. 

Screenprinting was a big one, and actually ended up greatly influencing my interest in abstraction. Breaking my images down layer by layer made me see all the incidental work going on literally beneath the surface. I’m still a little lousy with printing, but that experience was so informative and helpful in regards to the work I create now. 

It’s really easy for me to start feeling trapped in my drawings or to get overwhelmed by the detail. It’s constantly a game for me to surprise myself or trick myself into doing something I wouldn’t have thought of before. It centres me a bit and reels me back into why I’m doing what I’m doing. 

AC: Where did you grow up? How did your upbringing shape your ideas about art and design? 

Gabor Bata: I was born in Montreal but was raised an hour out in a couple different suburban towns until I was 15 (at which point I moved back here). I feel that was the right age to come back, and while I think I did most of my maturing and creative discovering in the city, I can’t say suburbia didn’t have some effect. 

Nature had always been a backdrop in my home life, trees especially. My interest in the shape of trees has translated into some of the organic shapes I toy around with in my art. And the strange things you find living in those trees! My brother would get these bugs biting him all the time, and he’d just balloon completely out of control. The way the body reacts, how little control we have over it, and how little understanding, especially as a kid, definitely must’ve played into me drawing these erratic, bulbous organic characters who can barely contain themselves. 

AC: How do you feel about social media as a platform for what you make? 

Gabor Bata: Social media has its perks. It can be a beautiful way of connecting and discovering others, especially in the art world. However, as a means of consuming art and information, that’s a bit tricky. On Instagram, you’re swiping through image after image after image, and at a point, they don’t really have the impact or the ability to be enjoyed on their own. Is it the ideal way to consume a piece of art? 

In my case, there’s a lot that feels lost in the translation of my 3x5 foot drawings to my 5.5x2.5 inch iPhone. I dunno, I sound like dinosaur bones now. I follow plenty of artists who have mutated their output to fit within the square confines of an Instagram post, to the point where I can’t imagine it being presented anywhere else. To me, I use it more out of practicality, and I’m definitely intent on eventually creating my own website where it’s less about taking in as many different images as possible in 30 seconds and more about giving the work a proper platform to breathe. 

AC: What does community mean to you, and how do you connect with it?

Gabor Bata: Look, I know I just wrote that grand anti-Instagram manifesto, but yeah, I’ll stand by the fact that I’ve connected with so many cool artists and friends through it. 

It’s important to surround yourself with other nut jobs who share the same wants and struggles as you. Working around like-minded folks can be inspiring and challenging. If they’re really good at what they do, I think getting a bit pissed at how good they are and trying to outdo them every once in a while is healthy. 

Here are just a few of the artists who piss me off on the regular: @jupescoops (Aaron Elvis Jupin), @alexahawksworth (Alexa Hawksworth), @mlarono (Mathieu Larone), @catherine_desroches (Catherine Desroches), @erynlou (Eryn Lougheed) @jasonmurphyart (Jason Murphy) @foreshortening (Graeme Shorten-Adams), @francismarcel_ (Francis Marcel Williams) @peiangelina (Angie Pei)

Gabor Bata

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