Super Dakota

For his first exhibition at Super Dakota, Short Roots, Martin Kačmarek focuses on the intricate relationship between tradition and innovation in agriculture, pulling from his personal experiences growing up on his family’s farm in Slovakia.Throughout the works in the show, he invites us to consider the complexities of farming today and the deep emotional ties that bind individuals to their land and heritage.

Kačmarek combines airbrush techniques with traditional brush strokes, creating a unique fusion of shapes, colors, and textures. His mastery of the airbrush gives his canvases a sharp, digital aesthetic, reminiscent of rendered images, online spaces, and video games. The figures he portrays, appear ambiguously connected to their surroundings, their linear silhouettes strangely detached from reality. Lighting and color play crucial roles, conveying the passage of time throughout the seasonal practices of farming.

Kačmarek’s works are deeply autobiographical, reflecting on his relationship with his family’s farmland where he grew up. Over the years, he has developed a strong interest in learning about more sustainable ways to care for the land, which he also explores in his paintings. Through the lens of regenerative farming—a method that contrasts with conventional practices—he explores the challenges of introducing new agricultural techniques in a setting bound by tradition. This tension is most evident in works like The Story of the Strickler, where the artist depicts a self-portrait intertwined with the story of Dale Strickler, an internationally recognised agronomist known for his practices and advocacy for soil health. The work evokes the tiring process of breaking hard soil, a metaphor for Kačmarek's own efforts to break through the resistance of his community.

In The Same Mind Every Year, the artist comments on the cyclical nature of traditional farming practices. He portrays a farmer as a figure stuck in a loop, planting the same crops year after year, a practice detrimental to soil health and biodiversity. This piece captures the frustration of witnessing the repetition of outdated methods, despite the availability of more sustainable alternatives.

Judgment is another theme the artist explores. In Judging, a figure overlooks his neighbours, symbolising the constant observation Kačmarek faces from his community as he tries to introduce new farming methods. The painting echoes the judgment that small communities often impose on those who dare to be different, leaving the artist in a state of impotence, struggling to achieve a harmonious relationship with nature – an ideal he envisions with Farmer’s Glory, a painting featuring a fictitious book that symbolises this aspiration.

If Courbet’s Realism paved the way for challenging convention by depicting everyday life on a grand scale, Social Realism aimed to highlight the declining conditions of the poor and working classes, challenging the governmental and social systems responsible during the World Wars. Both movements responded to the social and political tension of their time. As Evan Pricco aptly noted: “Kačmarek’s work echoes the essence of Diego Rivera, Andrew Wyeth, Jacob Lawrence, Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, José Clemente Orozco, and even Dorothea Lange - not in style, but in essence and subjectivity. On the surface, one might see echoes of Van Gogh's 'The Potato Eaters', yet Kačmarek operates through a different prism. He integrates the legacy of socialism, labor, and 21st-century technological advances reflecting on the displacement of workers”.

In Short Roots, the sustainability of soil emerges as a central concern, responding to the ongoing climate change crisis, which urges for new politics of regulation. This approach is especially relevant against the backdrop of recent agricultural strikes in Europe, which highlight the practical difficulties and discontent within the farming community. Rising production costs, foreign competition, falling incomes, and environmental constraints are at the root of this frustration. Environmental issues are at the center of heated debates today as we rush to find solutions to sustain our globalised and fast-paced consumerist society, which often fails to reach consensus. During ongoing global conflicts and political polarisation, Kačmarek’s paintings resonate as a commentary on the challenges we face today, shaped by his first-hand experience and deep emotional attachment with the land. The largest piece in the show, No Alarms No Surprises, juxtaposes the tranquility of a farmer with the chaos of bureaucratic demands. A cow lazily nudges a farmer awake, while a crumpled bureaucratic paper sits nearby—a nod to the corruption and exhaustive procedures that often plague small-scale farming in Slovakia.

In works like Waiting for the Rain and True Romance, Kačmarek visually narrates the harsh realities of climate change and monoculture—a widespread farming practice in Slovakia that he critiques for its environmental impact. In a lighter yet still profound tone, Last Color of the Season, depicts a man running with the last flower in a barren field, chased by bees. This painting, both whimsical and melancholic, symbolises the fleeting beauty of the land under traditional farming practices—a stark reminder of what is at stake.

Kačmarek's paintings push us to consider the stakes of our current path and the possibility of a sustainable future. Throughout Short Roots, Martin Kačmarek not only shares his personal journey but also invites us to reflect on broader societal issues- from the environmental impact of traditional farming to the cultural resistance to change. His work is a reminder of the contemporary need to concile the wisdom of the past with the demands of the future, encouraging a deeper connection to the land and each other.