Hungarian photographer Szilveszter Makó is letting fashion fans do something they normally cannot do: step inside the strange worlds they have only seen in his pictures. His first solo exhibition, 'Bauhaus Ballet', launched in New York on 8 September ahead of public viewing from 10 September, turning his photography, memories and handmade sets into six rooms that visitors can explore.
Presented by Capital One with The Cultivist, the project runs at 29 West 23rd Street in Manhattan from 8 to 12 September 2026, with public viewing from 10 to 12 September. Instead of simply hanging photographs on walls, Makó has recreated parts of his visual world at full size, allowing guests to step inside environments inspired by his shoots and create their own images within them.
Szilveszter Makó Brings His Surreal Photos to Life
Makó is known for photographs that can look like old paintings, stage sets and dreams mixed together. His work often uses handmade props, unusual shapes and simple materials to build scenes that feel unreal, and his subjects have included Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Bad Bunny, Rihanna, John Galliano and Gwendoline Christie.
For 'Bauhaus Ballet', those flat images have been turned into physical spaces people can enter. The Cultivist says guests can 'step inside the sets' associated with Makó's work, while the six-room exhibition uses elements including bare brick walls, inherited cutlery and familiar household objects to construct his unusual visual world.
Photos from the exhibition show how closely the concept follows Makó's picture-making style. In one space, a visitor stands beside an oversized fish above a red-and-white checked table, while another places tall, dried plants within an environment that looks closer to a theatrical set than a conventional gallery.
'Bauhaus Ballet' Goes Back to Makó's Childhood
The rooms are not strange simply for the sake of looking unusual. Organisers say the exhibition draws from Makó's childhood memories, Hungarian folklore and his experience of post-communist Eastern Europe, giving many of its objects and scenes a personal connection to his past.
One recurring motif in his work, a cardboard house worn on the head, can be traced back to a costume Makó wore as a child during Hungary's Farsang celebrations. He later rebuilt the idea for portraits involving stars including Willem Dafoe, Cate Blanchett and Gwendoline Christie.
The exhibition also gives visitors a closer look at how Makó builds these worlds before a camera ever captures them. Rather than keeping the carefully constructed sets behind the scenes, 'Bauhaus Ballet' makes the environments themselves part of the experience and gives visitors room to create their own compositions inside them.
Fashion, Art and Performance
'Bauhaus Ballet' also sits neatly inside New York's September fashion calendar, with its public run beginning as New York Fashion Week gets underway. Fashion publications including Elle and Vogue Philippines have also highlighted the exhibition among the month's notable art and fashion events.
Quen in attendance at Szilveszter Makó’s Bauhaus Ballet exhibit last night in New York. pic.twitter.com/tS9F82DIe4
— ۟ (@quenaissance) September 10, 2026
The project extends beyond photography. Its programme includes live events and dining experiences, while Capital One cardholders were offered special programming including a dinner inspired by Makó's Hungarian heritage and a 10 September DJ set by Tove Lo.
For Makó, handing the rooms over to visitors changes the usual rules of his work. He has explained that while he still establishes the structure and visual framework, what happens within it can temporarily belong to somebody else, turning his carefully controlled photographic world into something the public can participate in.
