The colorful comics seem almost unintentionally glued into the barren, monotonous landscape.
A thick black border around the minimalist creatures both separates them from their environment and holds them to the ground, almost crushing them. The steppe-like environment surrounding the creatures appears hostile to life, as beside the individual animal motifs, there is only an oppressive emptiness, or rather, vastness.
The figures themselves appear cute, naive, and lovely, but also helpless, stoic, apathetic, resigned, and very vulnerable. However, they seem indifferent to this condition. The loneliness and isolation are as inherent to their expression as the meaninglessness of existence. They stare with sedated eyes either into nothingness or directly at the viewers, forcing them to confront their inner emptiness rather than allowing them a glimpse.
This ambivalence between infantile beauty and existential search for meaning is further intensified by the oversized formats. The choice of the motifs themselves is a statement of solidarity with the weaker and unpopular, which culminates almost absurdly in the depiction of what is arguably the largest caterpillar in art history. Zunec offers viewers new perspectives and places the banal at the center.
(Bertram Schrettl)
All paintings are acrylic on canvas, measuring 150 x 100 cm, created in 2017.