Author: Sean Lee (UK) – You Are the Wall (On Spot Gallery)
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Adrijan Praznik is active as a painter, curator, and producer. He received his BA in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana, in 2016. From 2017 to 2018, he attended the School for Curatorial Practice and Critical Writing – World of Art in Ljubljana. From February 2020 to November 2023, he was the artistic director and curator of the Simulaker Gallery in Novo Mesto. As an artist, he has participated in numerous exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad, including the group painting exhibition Time Without Innocence at the Museum of Modern Art (2019, Ljubljana), the group exhibition The next 21 days will be crucial at the Škuc Gallery (2021, Ljubljana), the internationally acclaimed art fair viennacontemporary (2021, Vienna), and the solo exhibitions –WHERE OUR HEARTS HAVE LED US… at the Star Atelier of the MGLC Švicarija (2022, Ljubljana), BACK TO NORMAL! at the Ravnikar Gallery Space (2022, Ljubljana), Blue Skies at the Cukrarna Palace (2023, Ljubljana), etc. As a curator and producer, he co-curated the exhibition konSequences at the Cukrarna Gallery (2023, Ljubljana), produced within the konS ≡ Platform framework. Since September 2023, he has been active as the artistic director and curator of the 2^32 Institute. At the KAOS 2024 festival, he is curating the group exhibition Speaking in the words of another / Five approaches to collage in the Janez Puhar Gallery – Škrlovec Tower.
IG: instagram.com/adrijan_praznik
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María Elisa Quiaro is a versatile visual artist born in Venezuela. He comes from a family in which the roots of many cultures are intertwined. She has also lived in the United States and Great Britain, and currently works and lives in Germany. After graduating in graphic design, she also studied journalism and art. Quiaro says that life is a collage. She loves to express herself artistically through collage, also through assemblage, ceramics and painting. Since 2015, collage has had a special place in her life, and her works have been published in books and magazines in Australia, the USA, Spain, Italy and England, where she has also exhibited. At the KAOS 2024 festival, he is curating the exhibition ART IN A BOX: Liminal places.
IG: https://www.instagram.com/mariaelisa.quiaro/
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Les Jones and Molly Campbell are the creative team of Contemporary Collage Magazine. They are father and daughter who have a passion for collage and magazines and are excited to deliver a publication that celebrates and promotes collage in all its forms. They launched Contemporary Collage Magazine in 2021 and ever since they have been amazed to discover artists across the world who are producing incredible works using collage as their medium. This is the connection that brought the collaboration with the KAOS Festival. Like any other medium, collage is capable of delivering works that are beautiful, poignant, humorous, thought-provoking and sometimes even shocking. So, the challenge to curate an exhibition of just fifteen pieces wasn’t easy. They chose a number of artists whose work we have featured in the magazine and whose approaches fitted well with the ‘Beneath the Surface’ theme through a broad range of styles, approaches, and interpretations. They are curating the exhibition in the Street Gallery in the city center of Kranj, in front of the city Library Kranj, called On Spot Gallery.
WEB: https://www.contemporarycollagemagazine.com/
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Andrej Štular is a multimedia artist, who is active in various fields of visual art: illustration, comics, video, film, sculpture, painting, photography and puppets. He is regulary exhibiting his works on solo and group exhibitions, participating at international festivals in Slovenia and abroad. He’s an active member of Slovenian comic magazine Stripburger and Puppet Theatre Nebo. Published comic albums: Ostri ritmi (s: Srečko Kosovel, 2021), Medved (2019),Kronike (2015), Bežimo, svet se podira! (2014), Živa sem (2011), Kompost (2008), Lustri (2000). At the KAOS 2024 festival, together with Maruša Štibelj, he is curating a group exhibition of digital collages in the basement of the Town Hall in Kranj, below the main festival’s theme Under the Surface.
WEB: http://www.andrejstular.net/
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Martina Marenčič, after graduating from the High School of Design and Photography, Graphic Design, enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana – Sculpture, and completed it under the mentorship of prof. Matjaž Počivavšek and Assoc. M.Sc. Jure Smolet. As a self-employed cultural artist, a sculptor, she worked in the fields of sculpture, production of props and scenographies for theater, film and television, as well as production of ceramics for many uses. She is a member of art societies in Slovenia and Croatia, president of the artistic council of the Kranj Art Society, art director of the International Festival of Fine Arts Kranj-ZDSLU and a professional associate of the Gorenjska Museum. For the past 20 years, he has been actively working in the field of culture, as evidenced by a large range of exhibitions, theater shows and performances both at home and abroad. He currently lives and creates in Kranj. At the KAOS 2024 festival, she is curating an exhibition in the Small Gallery in the center of Kranje
IG: https://www.instagram.com/martinamarencic
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Maruša Štibelj graduated in art pedagogy at the Faculty of Education of the University of Ljubljana. She exhibits her works at solo and group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. In 2018, at the Salon of Fine Arts in Paris, she received the Special Jury Prize for the work “Chronicly late”. She looks for material for collages in old magazines and newspapers, waste zones and forgotten spaces. From fragments of old stories, she creates new relationships in which she problematizes a wide variety of relationship issues: between people, between the sexes, the relationship of society to the individual and vice versa – the manipulative power of the individual and its influence on the sorrundings. She constantly tries to expand the boundaries of collage as a self-sufficient medium, while maintaining the original spectrum of colors that the material possesses. She is a member of the ZDSLU and the Kranj Art Society and the artistic director of the contemporary collage festival KAOS. She lives and works in Kranj. Without her, this year’s festival (and all the previous ones) would not have happened. <3
IG: https://www.instagram.com/marusastibelj_collage/
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The exhibition of the students of the SŠOF (High School of Design and Photography Ljubljana), which will be on display in the Layer Café, was mentored and selected for the exhibition by professors and mentors: Veronika Vesel Potočnik, Meta Šolar and Kaja Urh.