Matjaž Počivavšek's studio in Ljubljana, January 2016; photo: Matija Pavlovec (Moderna galerija, Ljubljana)

In 2016, the series of small-scale exhibitions From the Studio of…, presenting the current artistic outputs of artists included in Moderna galerija’s permanent exhibition, 20th Century: Continuities and Ruptures, focuses on sculpture. This year’s first exhibition in the series provides us with an insight into the current output of sculptor Matjaž Počivavšek, whose work Staring at Darkness (1985, marble, ebony), included in Moderna galerija’s sculpture collection, is on display in Exhibition Room 5. Bearing a Greek title Nesos (Island), the exhibition will present, among other things, Počivavšek’s works in wax.

The exhibition has been designed and staged together by the artist and the curator, Marko Jenko, PhD.

Matjaž Počivavšek was born in 1955 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1978, completing postgraduate studies in sculpture under Slavko Tihec in 1980. He further studied at the New York Studio School (1980–1981) under William Tucker, and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1983–1986). He has been teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana since 1996. He lives and works between Ljubljana and Paris. Selected awards: 1980 – The Prešeren Award for Students; 1991 – The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award; 1991 – The Prešeren Foundation Award; 2001 – The Rihard Jakopič Award.