AT: Where are you from and how/why did you start engaging with art?

ML: I was born in Slovakia and since my early childhood I tend to admire art. It has started (the engagement obviously) with my obsession in watching cartoons. I loved Cartoon Network Super RTL RTL2 and JETIX and all the other cartoon programs broadcasting in early 2000’s.

AT: When did it become serious?

ML: I guess it has been there from the beginning but I needed to be serious by the end of the elementary school. Things were changing and I had to choose my direction which was in this case high-school. Ending up at the stone-sculpture department at the School of Applied arts in Bratislava was the greatest thing though.

AT: Are there any person who has been significant in your breakthrough as an artist?

ML: If you mean somebody concrete like a coach then no. There were several teachers which influenced me but nobody did it “significantly”. The progression came from the experience. In my case I’ve learned and carried experience during the time that I’ve spent with different people at different art schools or elsewhere.

AT: What is your first approach to the work? How would you describe your practice?

ML: It’s changing and evolving but mostly I do either sketches on paper or on canvas and then straight into painting. I have some ideas how the painting should look and it’s a free form from that point. I wanna have the process more organic. Sometimes I end up with totally different idea then I’ve had at the beginning but that’s the fun.

AT: What do you aim to reach with your work?

ML: Reaching for the stars here.

AT: What are your favourite tools and materials for working?

ML: I love oil. Rollers oil sticks oil pastels. I find acrylic paint fun too. Doesn’t matter if it’s a pencil or a tube of oil I can work with anything.

AT: What do you feel while you work? Do you usually think about the final outcome beforehand?

ML: I do. I wanna make it look fresh.

AT: How do you understand that a work is finished?

ML: As I mentioned earlier I do have an image or a vision before I start to paint. Then when it’s finished I just feel it. Sometimes the painting has to stay for some time in the corner of my studio but I can recognize it either right at the moment or in some time.

AT: Where does the inspiration for the work come from?

ML: It all comes from life. I’ve done some topics I love though. MMA, food, music, pop culture, and so on. With every new series of works I create a new statement I make a new topic or I continue with the ones I did before but I’m adding some new facts to it.

AT: Are there any artists who influenced your works? Why?

ML: Paul Delvaux, Maria Lassnig, Chris Martin, Judy Chicago and many more. Why? Every big artist has a certain energy which you can follow and identify with in certain period of your life.

AT: How important is the role of social media for you?

ML: Quite a good thing for being it touch with artists and gallerists, collectors etc. Could be also pretty overwhelming. Depends how individuals and artists are using it. But in general very good thing indeed.

AT: As an artist, what is your point of view about the contemporary art system?

ML: So what’s the system here. We have some commercial galleries some art spaces founded by artists which can be alive thanks to the subsidies and some art schools residency programs. I think that we as artists are having a lot of opportunities but ofc it’s not that easy. For sure it will develop more but things are good. Can’t complain here. Thanks to the current situation in the world (the covid-19 thing) everything will go through a change.

AT: What do you find to be the most challenging or daunting thing about pursuing art? What is the most rewarding part of working as an artist?

ML: When the show is set and hundred percent then the audience comes and I feel the energy. The energy at the studio when I’m finished with a painting. There is so many moments I love about it. Everything about art is challenging. Just to walking up and going to the studio.

AT: What do you do besides art?

ML: My favorite hobby is wine tasting then I often go for some MMA matches or fashion shows. I love food too. Traveling is also my favorite kind of thing but now is not the right time for it.

AT: What are your goals and expectations for the future?

ML: We will see. Just wanna work hard and make my future projects look sharp and hundred percent. Got so many ideas which I need to execute.

Martin Lukáč (b. 1989) is a Slovak painter currently living and working in Prague, Czech Republic.

"Lukáč's painting practice revolves largely around the depiction of motifs. Alighting upon a given form, the simpler, the better, he depicts it, sometimes repeatedly within the same canvas, until he has essentially exhausted it. The motifs can range from modified grids, full of expressive higgledly-piggledly interiors; what looks like a shield or a coat of arms; and the poorly drawn profile of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" (Chris Sharp).

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