Gyula Siska is a Hungarian artist born in 1958 in the little town of Szamosszeg. He graduated from both the High School for the Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts where he studied painting and restoration. His first job after school was as a restorer of photographs while he took time to more fully develop his education in the classical techniques of painting. Since then Siska has made a name for himself in Europe and America as a painter, as well as for his expertise in daguerreotypes [duh-gair-uh-tahyp] (a style of printing photographs) and restoration of old photographs.

His interest in the highly detailed daguerreotypes runs a common thread through his painting style. His highly detailed florals are reminiscent of antique photographs and are painstakingly exact in their detail of each petal and leaf. Viewers of his paintings are often tempted to wipe away the realistic drops of water placed in his paintings prior to the realization that they are in fact a part of the painting.

He is highly influenced by the masters of the 17th and 18th Century, especially 17th Century master Jan Davidsz de Heem (1606-1683).

Major European galleries in London, Paris, and Vienna have regularly exhibited Gyula Siska’s work. Collectors appreciate his meticulous detail and the appealing value of his work that few living artists are able to achieve — the calm feel of an old master floral painting. When the Pope visited Budapest, Siska created an extraordinary work of art together with a sculptor — they made a circular copy of the famous Turin Shroud in a mixed media technique of bronze casting and photography.