Zoltan Kemeny was born in Banica, Transylvania, on March 21, 1907.
Between 1924-1927 he completed architecture studies at the School of Arts and Crafts in the same city, and then enrolled himself at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, where he attended until 1930, the year in which he moved to Paris. From 1940 to 1942 he stayed in Marseille and then moved to Zurich, working as a designer and fashion editor for the Swiss “Annabelle,” an activity that he left in 1960 to dedicate himself exclusively to sculpture.
After developing different crafts, especially during his Parisian period, he resumes painting in 1942.
In 1946 he makes acquaintance with Jean Dubuffet and his first solo show in Pairs, at the Galerie Kleber, where the artist exhibits his first multi-material paintings and his relief collages with assemblages of various materials: from sand to wood, from twine to string, to stones, to small objects such as buttons and beads.
In 1951 he works with some colored reliefs on glass and in 1953 completes his first trip to America. In 1954 are the first reliefs on metal that will form the style and unmistakable character of his sculpture.
In 1964 the artist is invited to represent the Swiss Pavilion at the XXXII Biennale in Venice, with a room dedicated to him, winning also the Gran Premio Internazionale for Sculpture.
Important exhibitions follow one after the other from the 1950's. In 1955 he exhibits at the Galleria del Milione (Milan) and at the Galleria dell'Obelisco (Rome); in 1965 at the Galleria del Naviglio (Milan). The Galleria Lorenzelli dedicates to Kemeny two solo shows: in Bergamo in 1967 and in 1972 in Milan, while participating in a collective promotion from the same gallery, later on becoming Lorenzelli Arte in 1995.
In the early years of the 1980's is a major traveling exhibition, prolonged until the 1990's, that sees the name of Kemeny linked to the production of the Cobra Collection of Karel van Stuijvenberg. Over the years, the exhibition is hosted in important museums in Europe (Liege, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Paris) and overseas: the United States (New York), South America (Caracas and Sao Paolo, Brazil), and Japan (Osaka, Tokyo, Taipei).
The work of Kemeny continues to be exhibited at personal and collective shows and is promoted at an international level. Works of Kemeny appear today in the most important private and public collections throughout the world.
The artist died July 14, 1965, in Zurich, after a long illness.