Keith Cunningham’s animal-themed artworks, situated between observation, memory and imagination, are among the most compelling of his oeuvre. While rooted in traditional techniques, Cunningham’s artistic approach is characteristically unconventional. His works do not aim to depict creatures as zoological specimens, but rather as presences: ambiguous, elemental, and at times unsettling. In his drawings and paintings, Cunningham strips away narrative and anecdote, focusing instead on the raw physicality and emotional weight of the animal form. His drawings, often executed with sharp economy, balance precision with suggestion. Dogs, bulls, mice and birds often emerge from the page not as complete descriptions but as fragmented impressions.

These partial presences invite viewers to complete the image in their mind, establishing a dynamic exchange between artwork and observer. His oil paintings build further on this language of ambiguity. Dogs and bulls, either staring uncannily at the viewer or engaging in violent fight, surface through dense, worked layers of paint, sometimes barely distinguishable from their backgrounds. This process mirrors the instinctive and often subconscious ways humans perceive animals, not as isolated subjects, but as part of a larger, shifting environment. In these works, the viewer is not simply looking at an animal, but confronting the strangeness and vitality of another living being. There is no sentimentality here, only a sharp awareness of the animal as both familiar and unknowable.