Dr. habil. Zoltán Somhegyi is a Hungarian art historian, holding a Ph.D. in aesthetics and a Habilitation (venia legendi) in Philosophy.
Since finishing university in 2006 he has been active as an art historian, art critic and writer. As a researcher he is specialised in 18th-19th century art and theory, having written his PhD-dissertation about German Romantic landscape painting. His other fields of interest are contemporary fine arts and art criticism. He writes critiques, curates exhibitions and participates in international art projects. Since its foundation in 2010 he has been working for Art Market Budapest – International contemporary art fair.
He has university level teaching experience, previously worked at the Department of Sociology and Communication of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary followed by the Communication Institute of the Faculty of Pedagogy of SZIE University in Szarvas, Hungary, then he was assistant professor at the University of Szeged, Hungary and later at Izmir University, Turkey. After having spent six years at the College of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates – of which the last year serving as Chair of the Department of Fine Arts – currently he is Associate Professor of Art History at the Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary.
He is Senior Researcher in the project: "Perspectives in Environmental Aesthetics" (2022-2025), supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (OTKA), Project Nr. 143294.
He was Secretary General (July 2016 – August 2022) and still is Website Editor of the International Association for Aesthetics. He is member of the Executive Committee and since 2023 Deputy Secretary General of The International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences, CIPSH/UNESCO Representative of The World Humanities Report, Advisory Council member of the Centre for Technology, Restoration and Art Enhancement (Techn&Art), Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Portugal as well as member of the Research Centre for Aesthetics, Nature and Environment, Department of Aesthetics, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, of the American Society for Aesthetics, of the Hungarian Philosophical Society, of the Nordic Society of Aesthetics, of the Finnish Society for Aesthetics, of the Society for Aesthetics in Slovakia and of the Association of European Journalists.
As of his editorial experience, he is Editor-in-Chief of "HAS – Humanities, Arts & Society Magazine", Associate Editor of "Popular Inquiry: The Journal of the Aesthetics of Kitsch, Camp and Mass Culture", Editorial Board Member of Transcultural Aesthetics. The International Association for Aesthetics Book Series (BRILL), of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Philosophica. Ethica-Aesthetica-Practica, of "Evental Aesthetics. An Independent Journal of Philosophy", of "Terra Aestheticae. Journal of the Russian Society for Aesthetics", of ContemporaryIdentities. International Art Magazine, Advisory Board member of "Argument. Biannual Philosophical Journal", of "Espes. The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics", of "The Polish Journal of Aesthetics" and Editorial Consultant of the Newsletter of the Global Studies Center of the Gulf University of Science and Technology, Kuwait.
