This confluence between the works of three jubilee artists (all celebrating their 75th birthdays) held in the Gallery’s collection reflects their artistic dialogues across the media of painting, sculpture and graphics. The group exhibition emphasizes the diversity of their creative approaches and the continuity of artistic thinking across their generation. Pirchala explores a playful painterly shorthand and a wry sense of humour, Hennel adapts the landscape with personal emotion and artistic conviction, while Hofer links traditional materials with contemporary means of expression. Presented as part of the Jubilees
cycle of exhibitions.

In terms of theme, the painter Marián Hennel explores the motifs of the landscape, the intrusion of industrial elements into the natural environment, and intimate figural compositions which are often suggestive of abstractionism. The predominant line of his work, however, is formed by his landscape paintings. The Spiš countryside appears here in a modified painterly interpretation – from lyrical vistas to more expressive forms and imposing compositions. In recent years, Hennel’s paintings have taken on a more dynamic character, featuring striking colour schemes. Alongside his landscapes, Hennel’s work also includes portraits and sacral themes; in addition to his intimate renderings of Biblical motifs and his cycles revolving around roadside crosses, he has also designed artistic arrangements for the interiors of sacral buildings. Since the 1980s, he has been involved in the creation of large-scale works for architectural projects. In his artistic approach, he tries to achieve a balance between the realistic premise of the work and the use of a more abstract visual language. The landscape here is often hinted at through suggestions, emerging instead as the impulse for his non-figurative compositional structures. In his latest works, Hennel has begun to probe
the distinctive material structure of the painting.

The confrontation between opposing forces plays a crucial role in the sculptures of Rudolf Hofer; the artist applies this tension to seek out a mutual continuity, harmony and balance which can foster a greater understanding of their existential core. Among the oppositions which he explores in his work are the dichotomies of the masculine and feminine principles and the contrasts of light and dark. The artistic expression of his thinking is embodied into matter which emphasizes the rawness of the material, with traditional motifs intersecting with contemporary creative approaches. He works methodically with stainless steel, weathering steel and corroded metals, granting the material a remarkable malleability and deftness which belies their uncompromising physical qualities. His flowing lines are achieved by shaping and bending solid material into biomorphic, geometric and amorphic forms.

Encompassing graphics, painting and sculpture, the work of Viliam Pirchala captivates through its depiction of the commonplace and the interweaving of family motifs and Christian themes. The artist relocates his saints and Madonnas into local environments and links them to stories of families, friends and the anonymous characters of everyday life. The initial intention of his woodcuts is highlighted through the application of colour. He often returns to his graphic works many years later and enriches them by incorporating new narrative lines; the resulting works serve as something akin to a living chronicle of artistic creativity. Folk art has long been a source of inspiration to Pirchala, and he integrates its motifs into stylized compositions which recall the work of Fulla, Bazovský and Galanda and his Group. His work can be defined by its brilliance and the emotionality of its stories. The recurrent motif of the embrace emphasizes the concept of family bonds and the power of the connecting line of generations in the tangled web of stories, family, faith and life.

The exhibition Overlaps showcases how a remarkable diversity in artistic approaches can intersect in a shared reflection of meaning and artistic expression regardless of the wide range of media and themes. The featured work connects individual experiences, material approaches and generational parallels to foster dialogue and offer a pluralistic perspective on the contemporary artistic environment.

Mgr. Kamila Paceková, exhibition curator – GUS

About artists

Marián Hennel was born on May 9th 1951 in Spišská Nová Ves. From 1966 to 1970, he studied graphics under Prof. Gabriel Štrba at the High School of Applied Art in Bratislava. He continued his studies between 1972 and 1978 at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design; under Prof. Ján Želibský at the Department of Figure and Landscape Painting, and then under Prof. Orest Dubay at the Department of Free Graphics. He subsequently taught at the Elementary Art School in Spišská Nová Ves, and between 1992 and 2010 he taught stone sculpture at the Industrial High School. He works primarily in painting, sculpture, large-scale works for architectural projects and interior design of sacral buildings. He lives and works in Spišská Nová Ves.

Rudolf Hofer was born on April 4th 1951 in Sereď. He studied metallurgy in Banská Štiavnica, and between 1974 and 1989 he undertook private studies in sculpture at the studio of Vojtech Löffler in Košice. His work has featured in solo exhibitions in Košice (1976 and 1988), Michalovce (2002), Prague (PKO 1987), Paris and the USA (1993 – Mobile, Pensacola, New Orleans, Atlanta), and he has participated in group exhibitions in Košice, Bratislava, Prague and in foreign exhibitions in Poland and Lithuania. He has taken part in international sculptural symposia in Košice – Bukovec, in Poland (Rakszawa) and in Lithuania (Alytus). He has also completed study trips in France (1993) and the USA (1994 and 1995 – Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia). Since 2019 he has been an active member of the Slovak Art Forum. Working mainly in small- and large-scale sculpture, he lives and works in Nižná Rybnica in Zemplín.

Viliam Pirchala was born on January 17th 1951 in Kežmarok. From 1968 to 1972 he studied at the Department of Artistic Metalworking at the High School of Applied Art in Kremnica. From 1972 to 1978, he continued his studies under Prof. Ján Želibský at the Department of Figure and Landscape Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. After his
graduation, he and his family settled in Galanta where he worked as a freelance artist. From 1992 to 2002 he taught at the Department of Toys at the High School of Applied Arts in Kremnica. In 2002 he moved to Poprad and taught at the Associated Secondary Art School in Kežmarok until 2007, before returning to his former school in Kremnica where he taught once again until 2010. He works mainly in drawing, painting and graphics, but he also creates assemblages and object art. He lives and works in Horná Ves near Kremnica.