Tomo Podgornik in his studio in Branik near Nova Gorica (Slovene Littoral), May 2015

Curator: Marko Jenko, PhD

Opening of the exhibition: 11 June 2015 at 8 p.m.

Our new series of small-scale exhibitions entitled From the Studio of…, curated by Marko Jenko, presents cross-section views of recent production by artists whose works are included in the Moderna galerija permanent exhibition 20th Century / Continuities and Ruptures. The second exhibition in the series features Tomo Podgornik whose diptych painting Untitled (1976, acrylic on canvas) hangs in Room IV of the permanent exhibition. Our current permanent exhibition actually marks the first time Tomo Podgornik’s work was included in the final selection of any permanent collection in Moderna galerija’s history.

Tomo Podgornik was born in Ljubljana in 1949. He graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, where he also finished a postgraduate painting course in 1978. In 1974 he was awarded the Prešeren award for students for his then contribution to painting. His works, which date between 1975 and 1980, place him as one of the most prominent representatives of Slovenian abstract painting after the advent of conceptualism. He first exhibited his work in Moderna galerija in 1976 at the important group exhibition Tomo Podgornik, Andraž Šalamun, Tugo Šušnik, which is from a local point of view still seen as one of the key moments in the field of discussions about the so-called fundamental or analytical painting, inasmuch as it was also marked by the question of the possible decline of painting as a medium.

The exhibition was made possible by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.