As part of its programme presenting leading personalities of the region, the Záhorie Gallery is hosting a solo exhibition by Slovak sculptor Miroslav Trubač (b. 1986, Trnava). The exhibition offers a cross-section of his figurative thinking in space, ranging from small figures to more expansive installations—solid forms and the sensitive, soft core of visual expression.

The exhibition introduces his intimate sculptural work, an “autobiographical” plastic mosaic of fragile personal statements and private dialogues about his male world, family background, and feelings of uncertainty and doubt. Central works include Family Portrait (2007–25), an installation of ceramic heads of family members and a bundt cake placed on a table; Compromise (2009), a double photograph of the artist’s parents in an old frame with an empty house mould in place of a face; and Home to Travel (2008), an album of small records of interiors. Through the body, corporeality, and the mutual communication of figures, Trubač introduces new, more general narratives and relational situations. This is the “public” body situated in various social contexts: two enlarged birdhouses engaged in an intimate conversation with a warm light (Intimacy, 2011); the quiet process of a young man’s coming of age (Ján – Maturing, 2023); or the figure of a seated boy holding a small bird (Birdwatcher, 2026). A strong aspect of many works is the hybridity of individual figures and their readings: a small wounded bird/airplane (Transformation, 2022–25) paired with the print of an airplane contrail in the sky on a curtain (Sky, 2026)—an inversion of interior/exterior; an ironic comment on Bratislava’s big-city identity with a possible interactive entry for the viewer (Paštekovo, 2009); a bent, twisted male figure lying on the floor (Exaggerated, 2023); the peculiar crossed form Hen (2026) gazing at a hybrid teddy bear (Toy, 2008); and a feathered male figure on a balcony (Avis, 2026). This combinatorial approach to sculptural figures and meaning is further enriched by a combination of methods, media, and materials—wood, ceramics, found objects, and new technological processes (frequent use of 3D printing, photography, light, and video). The artist also establishes a distinctive dialogue with the gallery space itself from the very first entry: a figure of a wheelchair user elevated and penetrating a column (Behind, 2020); the iconography of the relationship between man and woman in the chapel (Virgo, 2021); a deformed figure, a human “stalactite,” hanging from the basement ceiling (Endomorph, 2023–25); and the aforementioned feathered youth on the balcony (Avis, 2026).

Miro Trubač convincingly conveys the human world—its ascent, vulnerability, and imperfection (hybridity)—in the contemporary language of figurative sculpture. The atmosphere of intimacy and fragility is further intensified by the omnipresent curtains and veils (notably the photograph of abandoned legs behind a curtain: Hidden Record, 2022). He thus creates a penetrating web of intimate, imaginary, and unsettling situations in which the “soft core” of the sculptures and their messages speaks with particular intensity.

Vladimír Beskid