'Horsepower' opens at JD Malat Gallery Dubai, examining the horse as a timeless measure of power

JD Malat Gallery Dubai presents Horsepower, on view from 5 to 30 November 2025, a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist Tim Kent. The show explores the horse as a universal symbol of strength, progress, and imagination – a motif that has shaped both art and civilisation for millennia.

From the earliest cave paintings to the empires of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Rome, the horse has embodied motion and mastery. It powered agriculture, commerce, and war, and became a recurring emblem of human ambition in art – from Leonardo da Vinci and George Stubbs to Edgar Degas. When engineer James Watt coined the term horsepower in the 18th century to describe the output of steam engines, the animal’s symbolic role expanded into the mechanical age.

“The title Horsepower playfully addresses the historical use of the horse in art and literature while also nodding to how we gauge the value of work,” Kent explains. “From cave wall to the modern engine, the horse has remained a constant measure of power and imagination.”

Known for large-scale paintings that merge Renaissance precision with modern abstraction, Kent creates compositions that seem suspended between eras – not recreations of history, but reflections on how we perceive it.

“The horse motif has appeared throughout my work,” he says. “From the earliest domestication on the steppes of Central Asia 5,500 years ago until the industrial revolution, horses embodied power. They transformed agriculture, hunting, transportation, commerce, and war, and contributed to the spread of culture and language around the world.”

In Horsepower, that legacy becomes a lens for examining today’s relationship with technology. “With both Titan and 300 HP, I don’t make any judgment on whether or not developments in engineering benefit or detract from who we are, since obviously it does both,” Kent notes. “While I don’t think the fundamental human experience has changed very much over time, I am constantly amazed at the speed at which technology and culture has. This collision seems inevitable, and in my work I try to reflect on the fast pace of change in modern life – how things shift before we can truly grasp them.”

“Ultimately, my hope is that viewers connect with the theme,” he adds, “and that the work is seen not as serious but as a curious place to begin a conversation – a playful reflection on history in art and the ways we measure progress.”

“Tim Kent’s practice bridges centuries of artistic inquiry,” says Jean-David Malat, founder of JD Malat Gallery. “The exhibition resonates strongly in the Middle East, where the horse remains a timeless emblem of beauty, endurance, and cultural pride. Kent’s ability to weave that spirit into a contemporary dialogue makes this body of work particularly meaningful to present in Dubai.”

Born in Canada and trained in the UK, Kent has exhibited widely across Europe and North America. JD Malat Gallery, located in Downtown Dubai, continues to bring leading international voices to the region, bridging global artistic narratives with the Gulf’s deep cultural heritage.

Horsepower by Tim Kent runs from 5 to 30 November 2025 at JD Malat Gallery, Downtown Dubai.