Kolos Schumy, assistant professor for the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, first fell in love with digital art when he was a child.
Schumy was raised to be an artist, as many of his ancestors were artists before him. They pushed him toward the arts from a young age, particularly his mother, a textile artist.
Growing up in communist Hungary, Schumy was “blocked” from anything Western, which meant that computers were few and far between. But, he was able to use the Art Studio software on a Commodore 64 computer.
“Basically, you can change the colors of the pixels with clicks. So, I made an eye when I was 8 years old with just clicks, it took a whole afternoon. That was the first time I did anything like that, and it was just fascinating since people were not used to color screens at that time,” Schumy said.
From this point on, Schumy dedicated his life to art, specifically graphic design and digital art. In Hungary, he attended a fine arts high school from 1989-1992 where he received his associate degree in animation and graphic design. He then went on to attend the Hungarian University of Fine Arts from 2002-2007, where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in visual arts.
Schumy worked in Budapest, Hungary, for many years with different companies, doing things such as photo editing, magazine design and graphic illustration. Then, in 2007, everything changed when Schumy attended Art Basel, an international contemporary art fair.
“I first came to Florida in 2007 just visiting. And one of the main reasons that I am sitting with [The Current] today is because of Art Basel. I worked for a magazine in Hungary at the time and my art people in Hungary told me that Art Basel is the No. 1 art event in the world,” he said.
Art Basel provides a space for artists, art collectors and other prominent individuals in the art world to come together. There are four locations worldwide where this event is hosted, one of which takes place in Miami.
Schumy has been attending Art Basel in Miami since 2007. “This past December was my 18th year. Every year since 2007, I take off the whole week and I go down to Miami and I take pictures. On my website, there’s a link to Art Basel and it’s like 18 years’ worth of photos, over a million photos,” Schumy said.
Along with Art Basel, two main artists have influenced Schumy’s art and involvement with the medium.
The first artist is H.R. Giger, who is well-known for his designs of the creatures in the “Alien” movies.
“He was an amazing artist. I think that atmosphere, the science fiction visuals he created, inspired all of the computer games that people are playing today, starting with ‘Doom’ and all those things today,” Schumy said.
The second is Hajime Sorayama who painted hyper-realistic robots that were often displayed on magazine covers.
“It’s very iconic and recently they started making life-sized, or even bigger, sculptures out of his robots,” Schumy said.
Once deciding to move to Florida, shortly after attending Art Basel in 2007, Schumy worked at multiple state schools before making NSU home.
“NSU has given me huge support and freedom to develop ideas and classes that point us toward the future and cutting-edge technologies. They gave me access to devices and funds to create a class just like this one [virtual reality art course],” Schumy said. “So, I can explore and create art that is very fresh and new. I used to work at a state school and there was zero support. We can do things here that I would have never thought we could do.”
One opportunity that Schumy has taken advantage of is the access to the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale. He uses Adobe Aero to digitally encircle the museum with various objects. He has done this a few times with “Tetris” blocks and gummy bears before deciding on sharks for the museum exhibition.
“Adobe is a huge company, and they have a collaboration with Google Maps. So, I got approved to put objects on Google Maps that people can view using a QR code,” he said.
The surrounding of the museum is done in collaboration with the upcoming exhibit “Surrounded Islands” by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, opening on Feb. 23. The QR code will be displayed alongside the exhibit so that museum goers can view the animations on Google Maps.
Bonnie Clearwater, director of the NSU Art Museum, who has been working with Schumy for about two months, said that this collaboration came about as a result of one of Schumy’s previous students. Tristen Trivett, Community Engagement and Arts education coordinator for the museum, recommended Schumy when discussing a possible collaboration. He then reached out to him and put him in contact with Clearwater.
“Both of them were very enthusiastic in our meeting,” Clearwater said.
Schumy also teaches an extended reality art class with a focus on virtual reality. He built this class “from scratch” along with Raul Perez, senior Art + Design major, who works alongside him in the classroom.
Perez has been working with Schumy for two years, first as a student, then as his teaching assistant. Perez stated that one thing students will benefit from in Schumy’s class is his ambition.
“I have had professors in the past where as long as you do the assignment, they’re complacent. But Schumy really does care. He pushes you, even if you don’t like it, and oftentimes that makes your work better,” Perez said.
Schumy also likes to incorporate his students’ interests into his art. He often asks students who they would like him to draw, such as celebrities, musical artists, influencers and more.
“I like to ask students who I should draw, and they usually tell me people like rappers, so some of the people on my website, I don’t even know who they are,” Schumy said.
Schumy has made art his life and is dedicated to raising the next generation of graphic designers.
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