View the online publication we released for the 20th anniversary of the painting competition Maľba.
3rd place
Kontroš Maroš
Head
2015, acrylic and spray on canvas, 200 x 150 cm
(*1988, Poprad)
2007 – 2009, studied restoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, but he interrupted his studies and did not complete them. In 2011 he studied at the Faculty of Arts of the Technical University in Košice in the studio of contemporary painting under the guidance of Associate Professor Adam Szentpétery, where he is currently continuing his Master's studies. He lives and works in Poprad and Košice.
The painter is a newcomer to the finals of the competition and his entry represents a less usual position on the contemporary domestic scene. It is clear from the attached portfolio that he is engaged in two strong lines: one is the Lost Paradises series, in which he explores and varies the possibilities of contemporary landscape painting, and the other position is devoted to figurative motifs (often "heads"). Each of the series corresponds to its own manuscript. The final painting is from the second series, which is distinctive and literally disturbing. Kontroš's heads, instructed by the aesthetics of art brut (raw art), sometimes appear borderline naive and create a monstrous, deviant world of sick shapes implying flawed content. Although the form of the paintings may startle at first, after studying the portfolio it becomes clear that they are built on a Baconian foundation, "spiked" with the sick doctor from Batman and above all disturbing with pathological allusions, they are nevertheless an unexpectedly concentrated testimony.
(The text is from the catalogue for the competition Painting 2015, A. Kusá)
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