This week we cast our community spotlight on Hungarian artist, Taker, who has been in Buffalo since April 3 to paint an outdoor mural on the eastern wall of the Research Studies Center Auditorium at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. The mural features three Hungarian heroes named as Righteous Among Nations by Yad Vashem – Sister Margit Slachta, Tibor Baranski and Dr. Clara Ambrus – who together saved thousands of Hungarian Jewish lives during the Holocaust.  

HERO and the Buffalo Jewish Federation have been working for months with Artists-4-Israel and Roswell Park on this unique mural project, part of a global effort to fight antisemitism. Buffalo will be the sixth location to display a mural.  

The decision to select a Hungarian painter makes the mural even more impactful.  

 Taker’s career began in 2001 and he describes his style of painting as photorealism, using only spray paint to produce his incredible masterpieces. His murals can be seen in the United Kingdom, Spain, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Hungary. 

Taker’s goal is “to create works that have great impact on people by their quality and their monumentality, and to beautify our built environment, to make people’s lives a bit happier by adding a little color to our gray cities.” 

Since arriving in Buffalo, dozens of people have gathered at the site of the mural, mesmerized as they watch Taker perform his craft. The ribbon cutting ceremony for the mural is Sunday May 5th at 1:30 following the Yom HaShoah Commemoration at noon.

To see more of Taker’s work visit his website at https://taker.hu.