Katja Bednařik Sudec: The secret of life |
Loža Gallery, Koper |
25th of October 2019 – 10th of January 2020 |
Exhibition curator: Nives Marvin |
Opening: Friday, the 25th of October 2019, at 19:00 pm
Weaving Touch, exhibition by Katja B. Sudec, photo: Mankica Kranjec
Weaving Touch, exhibition by Katja B. Sudec, photo: Mankica Kranjec
Weaving Touch, exhibition by Katja B. Sudec, photo: Mankica Kranjec
Katja Bednařik Sudec graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design of Ljubljana. She is an established painter who has always worked in the field of gallery education. Her artistic poetics, despite various developmental changes and experiments, has always been recognizable by its vivid and intimate expression. A selection of paintings she created over the past four years will be presented along the artwork of 2006 Hidden Garden at the Loža Gallery of Koper for the exhibition The Secret of Life.
Throughout her creative oeuvre, there is a simple but indefinite theme in her artistic process: she is inspired by motifs related to nature, interpersonal relationships, especially regarding her family, and the respect needed towards nature and mankind. In particular, she reflects on the role of modern woman and her on her own femininity, entity and identity, part of old traditional patterns and values regarding her role in society. There is also a noticeable intention to return to the essence of one's own identity, re-experiencing sensuality and femininity, including the mission of motherhood (as in the paintings Ode to Pregnancy, Shelter, Ode to Motherhood, Being a Mother, Coming).
Katja Bednařik Sudec likes to experiment with new media, exploring various technical and technological possibilities, as she innovatively uses various materials and procedures in her creation: she blends classical techniques with artisanal skills, such as weaving, embroidery, sewing, engraving. At the core of her work there is always a drawing as the most direct intimate record, which is usually placed on a colourful canvas filled with recognizable flowers, realized with classical techniques, sewn, or embroidered. The basic structure of the painting surface can be poured with epoxy resin, and in the intermediate layers intertwined with photographs, prints, and translucid fabrics realized by local artisans who follow Katja’s drawings.
A constant element of all her works is the motif of the rose. Hidden Garden, which already measures 5 meters in diameter and immediately attracts the visitor's attention, is at first glance a simple circular space, decorated with large rose flowers. It is her intimate “garden” of beauty, peace, silence and meditation, which becomes her original and multi-layered expressive metaphor: with respect for the history of fine arts, specifically for the famous symbolism of the ancient Garden of Eden and the multifaceted medieval Christian iconographic motif of the Hortus conclusus, the artist rediscovers lost information and values, which were essential for the existence of modern man. By entering this garden, the visitor is provided with subjective interpretations of the past and the present and a feeling of mysterious atmosphere, in harmony with all the most primordial aspects of nature, which also offer him aesthetic pleasure.
INFO: Nives Marvin, nives.marvin@obalne-galerije.si, T 041 630 689