Slovenian art in Australia
The exhibition opened on 6th July 2002, at the Slovenian Religious and Cultural Centre SS Cyril and Methodius in Melbourne, on the occasion of the Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius. The works displayed are by a group of well-known Victorian artists of Slovenian background. Among them are painters who exhibit work in Australia and overseas. The curator was Ivo Leber, who had already taken an exhibition of Australian Slovenian artists to Slovenia, Italy and Austria a few years ago. Thematically, the exhibition reflects the Slovenian background of the painters. Dominant are Slovenian and Australian landscapes and Slovenian cultural and religious themes. There are also beautifully crafted still-lifes painted in oil or acrylic. Prominent among the exhibited works are three striking canvases of Zorka Cernjak, on the theme of childhood experience of Slovenian fairy-tale motifs, painted in a sophisticated naïve style. Noteworthy are also the beautiful mosaics of Lojze Jeric, executed in glass mosaics and natural stone.
The Galeria Sloveniana's first online exhibition is a significant art event. It is the beginning of an exciting new venture. With the creation of the online gallery, the artist and his work can reach out to all the corners of the globe. more...
Slovenian Impressionism
Slovene impressionism revealed itself for the first time in 1900, with the exhibition in Ljubljana of the works of four artists – Rihard Jakopič, Matija Jama, Ivan Grohar and Matej Sternen. Their ideas about art had taken shape in the stimulating milieu of the highly regarded Munich art school run by an influential expatriate Slovene, the artist and teacher Anton Ažbe, and they themselves were eager to win international recognition for Slovene painting.
National consciousness had grown strong, and not only political but also literary and artistic figures sought freedom and an individual identity for their small country, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. more...
Romana Zorzut Favier
Romana was born in 1930 in Biljana, in the region of south-west Slovenia called Goriška Brda. She migrated to Australia in 1951. Romana had always loved painting and enrolled in The George Bell Art School. She began painting in 1963 and had since held solo exhibitions in Australia, Slovenia, Germany, Italy - over 25 exhibitions.
In 2007 she held a retrospective exhibiton of 50 years of painting, over 100 paintings, featuring Bright, outback Australia and Slovenia.
Romana draws inspiration from the colours and shapes of her environment. The themes are still-life, landscape and human figure. The main medium is oil painting. She depicts her subjects in terms of light and colour, mostly with loose contours and broad brushstrokes. Colour is applied boldly and the landscapes are atmospheric, creating a world of their own.
Of her exhibition in Germany, Frankfurter Neue Presse write the following: On observing he landscapes we can perceive the Impressionists, whereas sometimes she reminds us of Pointillists. Romana Favier Zorzut applies pure colour dots on the canvas, which merge into a whole in the contours. Mixed tones and colour planes are thus formed. The effect is increased by the artist's preference for working with the spatula. The technical device, intended to reproduce a certain harmony or impression, proves as successful: the twinkling light of a sinking landscape, brilliant, and yet non vilent colours, the play of light and darkness, explained as a characteristic in the depictions of the French artistic quarters in Mortmartre, of the luxiriant orcahrds or of the coasts of Spain, flooded by the sun.
The paintings with Australian motifs stand out clearly in contrast. The contours are loose, painted with broad brushstrokes. The colour patches are boldly applied and give the impression of the remoteness and the originality of the countryside..." more...
Andrew Potocnik
As artist, I continually find inspiration to explore new directions in creating from wood, as a material that gives expression to our view of the world. I continue to explore all those wonderful qualities every piece of wood conceals, just needing a sympathetic cut to expose it to those who see it as nothing more than a renewable resource, ready to be exploited, rather than appreciated.
As teacher, I endeavour to pass on knowledge to my students, hoping that they too will be inspired to explore wood celebrating it as a living material growing around us that can lend shape to the ideas conjured in our minds. I gain enormous enjoyment from seeing people of other cultures explore their wood, how they expose and celebrate its beauty, and how it is integrated into their culture and general existence.
Andrew Potocnik is a prominent Australian artist, renown for exceptionally beautiful wood sculptures. In the words of Kaye Phillips-Webb, he is “a wood turner and sculptor of distinction”, and today “one of Australia’s most talented artists”.
His work is well-recognised in Australia and abroad. Pieces are held in collections of several museums in the U.S.A., including the prestigious Los Angeles County Museum of Art.Works, and are owned by private and corporate collections, such as the Texas State Bank Corporate Collection, U.S.A. He has exhibited extensively in Australia - including the Melbourne Museum, in Munich, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Andrew was born in Melbourne, in 1963. of Slovenian parents. Andrew’s passion for wood began in the Arts and Crafts classes, when he discovered wood as a medium of artistic expression.
Winner of numerous prestigious state and national awards, Andrew has participated in Arts and Crafts exhibitions and competitions both as exhibitor and judge. He is a regular contributor of articles and reviews and editorials for books and magazines, and has travelled widely, collecting rare pieces of wood and drawing inspiration from a diversity of cultures.In the course of his professional life, Andrew has achieved, as he says, a satisfying balance between teaching and developing his own work.
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Kostanjevica Forma Viva
The collection of over 100 sculptures in the Open Air Gallery in Kostanjevica, Slovenia arose out of the International Symposiums of Sculptors called Forma viva, an initiative of Slovenian sculptors Jakob Savinšek and Janez Lenassi. Modelled on the symposium held in St Margharethen (Austria, 1959), the first two symposia were organised in Kostanjevica na Krki (local oak-wood) and in Seča near Portorož (stone) in 1961. Two other venues followed later: Ravne na Koroškem (1964, steel) and Maribor (1967, reinforced concrete). This project of sculpture in the open-air has involved sculptors from all over the world. There are now altogether over 300 sculptures.
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