Slovak artist Martin Kačmarek presents his solo exhibition 'Souls of the Land' at the Tuesday to Friday gallery. The exhibition allows for an appreciation of animal genre painting, featuring central figures like a cow tethered to a large stone, dominating the space with its direct and "very human" gaze, as described by Ricardo Forriols in the exhibition text.
Forriols compares these works to references such as "Potter's calf" or "Tansey's cow", highlighting the presence of figures like a ram, roe deer, a hen, a partridge, and an eagle. These animals are the subjects of the canvases, set against rural landscapes such as meadows, farmlands, or farms, under "turbulent skies" that create a "strange atmosphere, with humid light and a thick, mysterious mood".
“"All of them are souls of the earth, of the ground, of the territory, and they appear here before us not like in La Fontaine's fables, no, but as if they were scenes captured by Jules Renard's “image hunter” on his country walks and later collected in Natural Histories (1896)."
Another notable work is that of a cow showing "its udders and hindquarters in the foreground", reminiscent of a Potter engraving. In this painting, a "thriller" unfolds: someone is hidden near the cow while in the background a car with its lights on suggests a concealed presence. The artist also explores the relationship between animals and people in other paintings, such as a pig peering into a television, a young man looking at and whispering to a horse, or a man bringing flowers to his cow.
