Barna Illés

(1964, Budapest)

Barna Illés graduated with a degree in art and mathematics from the Juhász Gyula Teacher Training College in Szeged in 1990. In 1996 he completed the photography course at the Szellemkép Free School, and in 2005 he qualified as a teacher of visual communication at the Hungarian University of Art and Design, and in 2019 he earned his DLA at the same institution (now: Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design). Between 1999 and 2002 he worked with the support of the József Pécsi Scholarship, in 2002 with the HUNGART Scholarship and in 2003 with the “Operation Big Leap” Portland scholarship in New York. In 2008 he won the National Association of Hungarian Artists’ Award at the 16th Esztergom Photo Biennial, and in 2024 he won the Biennial Award, and in 2010 he was awarded a scholarship in Stuttgart by Budapest Gallery, and between 2008 and 2017 he received five NKA creative scholarships from the National Cultural Fund. Recently he has had solo exhibitions in Pécs (2016) and Budapest (2016, 2018).