János Vető (born 14 December 1953) is a Hungarian visual artist, photographer, video artist, musician, songwriter, singer and composer. He has been involved with non-conformist photo art, visual art and alternative music culture since the late '60s.
Biography Vető was born in Budapest in 1953. He was a child actor at Madách Theater in Budapest. He has been active in photography, film and music since the late 1960s. In 1962 he met János Baksa Soós, singer of the band Kex. He collaborated with Kex on some of their concerts in 1969-70. He was an intern at the Hungarian News Agency (Hungarian Telegraphic Office) where he worked together with Gergely Molnár, singer of the band Spions. Vető was the photographer, assistant, cameraman, and permanent co-worker of the performance artist Tibor Hajas from 1976 until Hajas's death in 1980. In the '80s, he created paintings, sculpture and installations with the painter Lóránt Méhes Zuzu using the name Zuzu-Vető. He founded the band Trabant with Gábor Lukin and Marietta Méhes in 1981. Vető has been living in Denmark and Sweden since the early '90s. He deals with digital image making, writes lyrics and music, sings, and plays the ukulele and the kaossilator.
Since 1990 he is from time to time collaborating with the Swedish artist Maria Lavman Vetö. They have made several installation- and musicprojects. They are married and are living together.
Career
Vető founded the Apropos Film Photo experimental film and photo studio with his friends around 1966-67 and the art action group KOMMUNART in 1972. His experimental music bands, playing intuitive music, are Kec-Mec, Apropos Filmphoto Cartoonband (Apropó Film Fotó Rajzfilmzenekar) and Hymnus. His first solo photography exhibition, Spárgatárlat, was held at Bercsényi Club in Budapest in 1974. His photographs are considered to be exceptional because of their progressivity and sensitivity.
"...his photographic work that radically challenged the conventions of portraits, self-portraits, and nudes..."
Vető collaborated with the body artist Tibor Hajas. Between 1976 and 1980, as Hajas's photographer, co-worker and friend, Vető participated in the preparation and implementation of Hajas's performances as well as in the creation of works (photo series) based on the performances which were published under both of their names. These works were featured in the Central Pavilon, Giardini at the 57th Venice Biennale at the invitation of the chief curator, Christine Macel.
Vető founded "postmodernist social-impressionist neo-barbaric" art with painter Lóránt Méhes Zuzu in 1981. They created drawings, paintings, sculpture and textile works using the name Zuzu-Vető. They applied markers, coloured pencils, brushes and spray and decorated their paintings (Two Hearts are a Couple, 1983) and textile works (Work Flag and Love Flag) with beads, feathers and various everyday objects. Stones, bones and transistors were applied on their sculptures (Űrkőkorszaki szoborportrék/Cellar Statue portraits from the Space-Stone Age), and they named their extremely colourful installations made by using blue vitriol and powder paint as "gardens" (Űrkőkorszaki pinceszoborkert/Basement Sculpture Garden from the Space-Stone Age, 1982, Szentendre, Vajda Lajos Studio). Each of their solo exhibitions is an installation that consists of their works and impromptu sculptures, their personal belongings as well as found objects (Tibeti Őszi Tábor/Tibet Autumn Camp, 1981, Budapest, Young Artists Club; Új zászlók, új szelek/New Flags, New Winds 1983, Budapest, Young Artists Club).
Vető founded the band Trabant with Gábor Lukin and Marietta Méhes in 1981, providing the script ideas and the characters for film director and screenwriter János Xantus' film Eskimo Woman Feels Cold. His other ensembles/groups: Malter és Vödör (Mortar and Bucket), Gagarin Pilótazenekar (Gagarin Pilot Band), Európa Kiadó. He founded I.M.A. (International Music Association) with Ivan E. Vincze in Copenhagen in 1998.
Since the '90s Vető has also been dealing with digital music and digital image making. He creates digital prints and videos using the name NahTe (Pixelvideos). One of his favorite materials is the bubble wrap used for packaging that he adopts as a base for paintings, sculptures, photos and videos.
In the summer of 2018 Vető created the Jó idő (Good Time) album with the members of the band Balaton.
Between 2007-2019, he created the Duo, Fluo Trio series from his digital images using the iron printing technique, the pastel and zinc painting, the scanning and the Ferrari printing.
The first two iron print paintings, IPP (Iron Print Paintings), were made in 2013, followed by a large series of paintings and several videos in 2020-2021.
He publishes his videos on his own YouTube video channel NahTe53.
Exhibitions Selected solo exhibitions 2025 Iron Print Paintings, Platz Galeria, Komárno 2024 Bercsényi 28-30 1970-2024, Móricz Zsigmond körtéri aluljáró, Budapest 2022 Found Images, Nemdebárka, Horány-Szigetmonostor • Domän#2 (with Dániel Erdély and Maria Lavman Vető), galeri ffrindiau, Budapest 2021 Domän (with Dániel Erdély and Maria Lavman Vető), Galleri Rostrum, Malmö 2020 Narcissus and Psyche and various new old pieces, Gallery Pegazus, Szentbékkálla 2020 Duo, Trio, Fluo, aqb Project Space, Budapest 2019 Introduction, Galleri Rostrum, Malmö 2018 Vintage, Bubble Wrap, Pixel, galeri ffrindiau, Budapest - Colored Old Air, Höörs Konsthall, Höör 2016 Vigil, acb NA, Budapest 2013 Witty, Budapest Gallery, Budapest RELAX (with Maria Lavman and Lotte Tauber Lassen), Malmö Nordic 2013, Malmö - We Are Resurrected (Zuzu-Vető), Neon Gallery, Budapest 2012 Public art, Verzó online Gallery 2009 Photographs 1975-1986, Vintage Gallery, Budapest 2008 Beautiful nothing, Me-Mo-Art, Budapest - NahTe 14 videohaiku and other electro-doodling, Pixel Gallery, Budapest - Tibor Hajas latest works in collaboration with János Vető, Vintage Gallery, Budapest 2007 Mari és Évike (Zuzu-Vető), Me-Mo-Art Gallery, Budapest - Zuzu-Vető works – Méhes Lóránt Zuzu retrospective, Ernst Museum, Budapest - Fotografi i fokus, ADDO, Malmö 2006 Zuzu-Vető, Kisterem Gallery, Budapest 2005 Tibor Hajas (1946-1980): Emergency Landing, Ludwig Museum, Budapest 2003 Colored Old Air, Hungarian House of Photography-Mai Manó House, Budapest 1997 In memoriam Tibor Hajas, Ernst Museum, Budapest 1996 Hang on Vision in collaboration with Maria Lavman Vetö, Politiken, Copenhagen - Hommage to the holy light-bulb, Articsók Gallery, Budapest 1995 Hommage to the holy light-bulb (with Maria Lavman Vető), Overgaden - Institute for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen - Ultimate pictures, Vizivárosi Gallery, Budapest 1994 Invisible Unhearable Unbelievable in collaboration with Maria Lavman Vetö, Újlak Gallery, Budapest 1991 Make babies not art in collaboration with Maria Lavman Vetö, Liget Gallery, Budapest 1989 Galerie Notuno, Geneva - Méhes Lóránt, Vető János, Gasner János, Kiss László, Margitszigeti Víztorony, (Margaret Island Water Tower) Budapest 1988 Liget Gallery, Budapest - Guitar lesson for Aliens, Almássy Hall, Budapest 1987 Photographs with artificial light, Almássy Hall, Budapest - New York-New York, Liget Gallery, Budapest - Budapest-New York, Kunstlicht Galerie, Frankfurt 1986 Photos, Liget Gallery, Budapest 1985 Post-traditionelle Kunst, (Zuzu-Vető), Galeria Mana, Vienna 1984 Flags, obo, obosutras, (Zuzu-Vető), Stúdió Gallery, Budapest 1983 New flags, New Winds, (Zuzu-Vető), Young Artists Club, Budapest - The First Three Stones, (Zuzu-Vető) Ifjúsági Ház (Youth House), Székesfehérvár 1982 Cellar Sculpture Garden, (Zuzu-Vető), Vajda Lajos Studio, Szentendre - It's beautiful today, (Zuzu-Vető), Rabinext Gallery, Budapest 1981 Tibet Autumn Camp, (Zuzu-Vető), Young Artists Club, Budapest - Zelfportret en Dialog, Galerij Micheline Swajcer, Antwerp - New Tractor Operating Agency, (Zuzu-Vető), Bercsényi Club, Budapest - Bam-Bam, Just A Little Louder, (Zuzu-Vető),1981, Bercsényi Club, Budapest 1979 Excavation, Bercsényi Club, Budapest 1977 Galerie Schweidebraden (with Gusztáv Hámos), Berlin 1976 Galerie Toldi, Budapest 1975 Young Artists Club, Budapest 1974 ’Spárgatárlat’, Bercsényi Club, Budapest 1973 Concept art (with KOMMUNART), Tomb of Gül Baba, villa Wágner, Budapest
Selected group exhibitions
2026 Here I Am - The Viennese Actionist And Contemporary Performative Art, Ferenczy Museum, Szentendre 2021 Paris Photo (acb Gallery and Einspach Fine Art & Photography Gallery), Paris 2020 ORD SOM BILD /BILD SOM ORD 2020 – Artists Books inspirerat av Lasse Söderbergs poesi, Galleri Rostrum, Malmö 2019 Epoch Treasures, Danube Museum, Esztergom 2018 Promote, Tolerate, Ban: Art and Culture in Cold War Hungary, Wende Museum, Culver City, California 2017 Viva Arte Viva (with Tibor Hajas), Central Pavilon, Giardini, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice - Summer Show, acb Gallery, Budapest - Two-way movement Focus: Hungary, viennacontemporary, Vienna - With the Eyes of Others, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York - Hungarian Gaze, National Museum, Warsaw 2016-2017 Progressive Intentions, The Hungarian Institute in Istanbul, Istanbul 2016 Lights of the Night. Cooperation and Interaction with Tibor Hajas, Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich - The Freedom of the Past, Mai Manó Ház, Budapest 2014 Waldsee 1944 and Cruel mailing – Anti-Semitic postcards 1895-1930, 2B Gallery, Budapest - Fetish, Taboo, Relic, Vajda Lajos Studio, Szentendre - 1, 2, ! ? „Itt jelentkezzen öt egyforma ember” – Concept ’palimszeszt’ or the Hungarian conteptualism, Art Gallery, Paks - Hungarian Hippies, Karton Gallery, Budapest 2013 The Naked Man, Ludwig Museum, Budapest 2010-2012 Global All Stars concerts, Islands Brygge, Copenhagen 2012 The Other Half of the Sky. Selection from the Ludwig Museum's Collection, Ludwig Museum, Budapest 2009 Karneval-Karneval, Erlangen / Berlin - Gallery Night Budapest, Mucius Gallery, Budapest - NOW, Gödör Terasz Gallery, Budapest - Kontor Orkester Rostrum, Malmö - „Brännaren 2”, Malmö - Björn Ross Micro Art Festival, Rostrum, Malmö - Berlinale special on Central European Cold War Films, Berlin 2008 Beautiful Nothing, MeMoArt Gallery, Budapest -14 Videohaiku and other electro-scratch, Pixel Gallery, Budapest - Karneval-Karneval, Fleet Street Theater, Hamburg - János Vető – Photographs 1975-1986, Vintage Gallery, Budapest - Neo-avantgarde tendencies, Zichy Castle, Budapest 2007 „Mari és Évike” (Zuzu-Vető), MeMoArt Gallery, Budapest 2006 Karneval-Karneval, Fleet Street Theater, Hamburg - Urban Contact Zone: Sharing Areas – Using Places, Hamburg 2005 What's Next? – Neighborhoods and Artistic Practices, Copenhagen - Neofoton, Szentendre - FMK – those 80s’, Kogart, Budapest 2001 Regard Hongrois – Hungarian Gaze, Palais Royal, Paris 2002 New works, Liget Gallery, Budapest 2000 Media Modell - Interactive technics, Kunsthalle, Budapest 1999 Documentum, Kunsthalle, Budapest 1995 Encuentro en Copenhagen – Reencuentro en Bilbao, (with Maria Lavman Vetö, Ada Ortega Camara, Peter Lind) La Brocha, Bilbao 1994 Group picture, Vigadó Gallery, Budapest -’80s – Fine Arts, Ernst Museum, Budapest- Variations for Pop Art, Ernst Museum, Budapest 1994 Panel (with Maria Lavman Vető, Lotte Tauber Lassen), Liget Gallery, Budapest 1993 Panel (with Maria Lavman Vető, Lotte Tauber Lassen), Fotografisk Galleri, Copenhagen 1993 "The Hungarian Epigon Exhibition 2", in collaboration with Maria Lavman Vetö Kampnagel, Hamburg 1992 "Ung Skulptur", in collaboration with Maria Lavman Vetö, Skovlunde Bypark, Köpenhamn 1991 "The general art-strike exhibition Perpeetum Mobile" in collaboration with Maria Lavman Vetö, Genéve, Antwerp 1991 Still Life (with Maria Lavman Vető and Szerencsés János) Fészek Gallery, Budapest 1990 TRIUMF det ubeboelige, Charlottenborg, Kobenhaven / Kunsthalle, Budapest