Martin Kuriš - Children

Martin Kuriš, a painter of imaginatively realistic canvases with an unusual sense for storytelling, presents his new series Children at Café Fatal. Created specifically for the gallery spaces of the Jesuit College, the exhibition connects the artist’s memories of his childhood in Kutná Hora with his current life in a small village in northern Bohemia. The paintings are reminiscent of a mixed-up album with no clear timeline or connection between events, thus causing the stories and images to emerge randomly. They depict seemingly ordinary and yet universal scenes from a sweetshop, the playground and school, with children as their central figures. The works’ simple and easily understood style and subtle colorist feel give these “snapshots” a sense of something intimate and familiar. It is as if we were contemplatively going through a box of childhood photographs, or remembering situations that we experienced or that our children will soon face themselves.