Ljubljana
MGML
Exhibition of drawings and paintings 1982–2020

Zdenko Huzjan

More Than a Morning

2. 3. 2022–6. 4. 2022

Huzjan paints the absence of human existence in a sky of stillness, where man sees his hope. The sky has always represented a life hidden behind real life.

As the titles indicate, the depicted scenes take place in the sky, which needs to be understood polysemously. One way of looking at the paintings is to see them as actual representations of views of the firmament in its duality. Huzjan does not paint it from the above, but as straight views, as if the sky had capsized, allowing a view directly into it. And like in every art where the artist creates a new world, this appears mysterious. The figures are depicted like shadows of fleeting visions. The real world is slipping away, retreating into the dimensions of the world of memories and fantasy.
Just a momentary look is preserved in the exhibited paintings, one static look of the artist. They are like a fleeting thought-look from the sky of consciousness to the sky of thought projection. Fragments of the sky are fragments of the world’s consciousness of existence and being, of man as an individual, of human consciousness that seems divided in levels, of light shining from above and from below in the pictures, because in the different levels of consciousness, the source of light can be anywhere. The laws of nature determining the time of existence and the characteristics of the environment do not apply here. The openness of the world is meant not only as an endless visual image of the world, but above all as an endless world of consciousness in time, determining the particular appearance of the world in a given moment. Everything that is real in consciousness can be realized in art on the level of imagination.
Miloš Bašin 

Zdenko Huzjan was born on 13 September 1948 in Lendava.
In 1972 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, and pursued postgraduate studies in painting there between 1972 and 1974. In 1988, he was awarded the Commendation for Art by the University of Ljubljana and elected Assistant Professor. In 1997, he was appointed Full Professor of painting and drawing.
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Huzjan is renowned primarily as a painter and printmaker, but he also works as a sculptor. He has had 109 solo shows, six of them retrospectives (Zdenko Huzjan. Paintings and Drawings 2000–2008, Mestna galerija, Ljubljana 2009; Zdenko Huzjan – Paintings, Galerija Murska Sobota, 2008; Zdenko Huzjan – a Retrospective of Drawings, Mednarodni grafični center, Ljubljana 2000; Huzjan. A Monographic Exhibition, Galerija Murska Sobota, Murska Sobota 2000; Zdenko Huzjan, Paintings – a Retrospective, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana 1995; Zdenko Huzjan, Prints 1983–1994, a Retrospective, Galerija likovnih umetnosti, Slovenj Gradec 1994), and has participated in over 380 group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad.
He has received 29 awards and prizes for his work, including the 1987 Prešeren Foundation Award, Ljubljana 1988; Rihard Jakopič Award, Ljubljana 2002; Župančič Award for Outstanding Achievement in Culture, Ljubljana 2005; Jury Award of the Association of Hungarian Graphic Artists, 4th International Biennial of Drawing, Plzen 2004; Honorary Diploma, 4th International Art Triennale, Majdanek 94. Panstwowy Muzeum na Majdanku, Lublin 1994; Albertina Purchase Award, 2nd Biennial of Slovenian Prints, Otočec 1992; Moderna galerija Ljubljana Purchase Award, 10th International Exhibition of Drawings, Rijeka 1986; Nikšič Purchase Award, 4th September Art Salon of the Young, Nikšič 1982; Prix, Panonia 77, Eisenstadt 1977.
His works are included in collections of museums and private collectors at home and abroad (Moderna galerija Ljubljana, Umetnostna galerija Maribor, Muzej in galerija Murska Sobota, Muzej Lendava, Obalne galerije Piran, Stadtische Galerie Ingolstadt, Albertina Vienna, Kabinet grafike JAZU Zagreb, Likovni salon Cetinje, Gradska galerija Nikšič, NLB Ljubljana Collection, BTC Collection, Merkator Collection, Riko Collection, Probanka Collection …).

Colophon

Production: Bežigrajska galerija 2 / MGML
Exhibition curator: Miloš Bašin
Artist: Zdenko Huzjan
Design: Miloš Bašin
Photodocumentation: Marko Tušek, Zdenko Huzjan
Realisation of the exhibition: Technical Service MGML, Miloš Bašin
The exhibition was made by: City of Ljubljana

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