Adrijan Praznik (SL)

Adrijan Praznik focuses on materiality and absence of color (primarily choosing a black and white palette) in the present work, as well as on crumpling and layering (textile collage and assemblage). Light and shadows depict obscured forms. Texts, which often serve as titles for the paintings, remain trapped on the canvases without (recognizable) imagery. Similarly, textiles, covered with thick layers of paint, only hint at their former use. One can only speculate about their functionality; one can only sense the body that wore or used these textiles. In this process, Praznik performs a formal and semantic reversal – the absence of image and body becomes the presence of the same image and body. Part of this presence can be imminently perceived through image-as-object, while another part is irrationally present in the contemplative and intuitive relationship to the painting. As in his previous exhibitions, the author has taken a new step in thinking beyond painting. The paintings are also populated by found texts and other symbols that open up new expressive dimensions to the images. In this interweaving of associations, one could also identify with concrete poetry or some form of “dark” pop art, post-media painting. The creative act of the new series of paintings can be understood as resolving the irrational with the irrational, as it would be senseless to explain the senseless.