Din A4 - Vlado Stjepić - Drawing V / VI - 2010, ink, acrylic, on paper

C V breve

1958 Born in Kosci, Bosnia-Herzegovina, currently living in Ljubljana, Slovenia
1973–78 Studied at the Sarajevo School of Applied Arts
1978–82 Studied at the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts (Slovenia) in the Department of Painting
1982–84 Postgraduate study in painting at the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts
1985– Status as a freelance artist
1987 State scholarship through the “Moša Pijade” Fund for a study trip to Spain
1999 Prize at the 1st International Biennial of New Watercolour in Kleinsassen, Germany
2006 Grand prix at the 7th Slovenian Biennial of Town Kranj, Slovenia
2007 Prize at the 7th Watercolour Biennial in Zrenjanin, Serbia

Image above: Vlado Stjepić - Drawing IV, 2011, ink, acrylic, pastels, 210 x 125 cm.

Solo exhibitions

2010 Drawings, Domžale Gallery, Domžale, Slovenia
2009 Outspinning, Schwarz Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2008 Drawings and Paintings, Gallery Prešernova hiša, Kranj, Slovenia
2007 Drawings 2007-2007, Lamutov likovni salon, Kostanjevica na Krki, Slovenia
2006 Between Black and White, Visual Artists Association Gallery, Ljubljana
2005 Cores / Formations, Gallery Völkermarkt, Austria
2004 Cores / Formations, Visual Artists Association Gallery, Maribor
2000 Cores / Formations, ARS Gallery, Ljubljana
1998 Paintings, ŽULA Gallery, Maribor
1996 Paintings, Meduza Gallery, Koper
1995 Paintings, Šivčeva hiša Gallery, Radovljic
1994 In the Search of Axis mundi (paintings), Bežigrad Gallery, Ljubljana
1991 Drawings, Art Society Gallery, Ulan Bator, Mongolia
1989 Paintings, Miklova hiša Gallery, Ribnica
1986 Drawings and paintings, Slovene Visual Artists Association Gallery, Ljubljana
1983 Drawings, Yugoslav Portrait Gallery, Tuzla

Image above: Vlado Stjepić - Drawing III, 2010, ink, acrylic, canvas, 210 x 125 cm.

Group exhibitions

2011 The Moment of Privacy has Passed, Sketchbooks by Contemporary Artists, Architects and Designers, The Usher Gallery, Lincoln, England
Drawing Connections, Siena Art Institute, Italy
2010 International exhibition Nord Art 2010, Kunst in der Carlshütte, Sehestedt, Germany
2009 Drawing in Slovenia II, 1940-2009, Municipal Gallery, Ljubljana
2008 5th Biennial of Small Paintings, Gallery Ljutomer, Slovenia
2007 Anonyme Zeichner 5, Blütenweiss, Raum für Kunst, Berlin
7th Watercolour Biennial, Savremena galerija, Zrenjanin, Serbia
Drawings, ZDSLU Gallery, Ljubljana
2006 7th Slovenian Biennial of Town Kranj, Slovenia
2004 Image as Surplus of the Visible, Rihard Jakopič Gallery, Ljubljana
2003 Image as Surplus of the Visible, Dom HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
2001 2nd International New Watercolour Biennial, Kunststation Kleinsassen, Germany

Image above: Vlado Stjepić - Drawing I, 2009, ink, acyilic, paper, 150 x 200 cm.

Group exhibitions (continuation)

1999 1st International New Watercolour Biennial, Kunststation Kleinsassen, Germany
1996 Original Works on Paper by Selected Slovene Artists, Municipal Gallery, Ljubljana
GENERATION 82, Sikoronja Gallery, Rosegg, Austria
Exhibition of Slovene and Canadian Visual Artists, Carrier Gallery, Ontario, Canada
1994 14 1 Exhibition of Slovene Artists, Jiangsu Art Gallery,Nanjing, China
1992 Selection from the Ribnica Art Collection, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana
1991 "Winter Salon", Municipal Gallery, Ljubljana
Initiative Alpe – Adria, Europasaal des Salzburger Kongreßhauses, Salzburg
1989 15th Yugoslav Biennial of Young Artists, Rijeka, Croatia
"Yugoslav Documenta 89", Skenderija, Sarajevo
Experience of an Object – Young Slovene Artists, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana,
1987 14th Yugoslav Biennial of Young Artists, Modern Art Gallery, Rijeka, Croatia
1983 International Photo Exhibition, 21st Zagreb Salon, Zagreb, Croatia

Image above: Vlado Stjepić - The Blue Drawing, 2010, ink, acrylic, paper, 188 x 112cm.

Artist statement - the working process

The beginning of work on a painting is the beginning of searching, experimentation with options, questioning and seeking answers. The painting is turning into an open field of possibilities, a place where nothing is impossible. There is no shame, no fear. There is no calculation. The canvas influences me like a second body, and during the process of painting a kind of spiritual and corporal fusion, an erotic relationship occurs.
The first contact with the surface is like the touch of skin; at the beginning somewhat unsure and awkward, later becoming increasingly forceful, lusty and possessive.
The inner tension, the pressing need for a rapid actualization brooks no preconceived ideas and models. As the work on the painting progresses, conscious control gradually retreats, chased away by the onslaught of subconscious contents, allowing no subsequent articulation (do they have their own?), while their apparent inarticulateness provides suggestiveness and power. The approach is frontal and total: I work on the entire canvas at once.
In this play I am simultaneously within and without the painting, creating and destroying the dualism of man. I vibrate. I apply the paint with my hands, smearing it and drenching it with water; it drips, flows, pulsates, lives. The process gradually becomes completely open, uncontrolled, chaotic, almost hypnotic. The elements of painting are being embodied,
one could say through a natural process. They are being born, resuscitated and they finally disappear. The paint (earth) and the water are mixed, producing mud in which the body wallows, slides, slithers, creeps, and leaps. the edges, limitations and constraints are gone. Colours disappear; lines, contrasts, harmonies are no more. But all this takes place inside, in the play, in the state of potency.

The accumulated layers on the body and soul (the cultural, historical crust, the memories acquired by nature and nurture) are being purified, melting and vanishing like spring snow. This is the moment of communion, the sinking, the intertwining with one's own dark depths, with the collective groundwork of existence and civilization.