From 9 April to 5 May, the National Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with the “Božidar Jakac” Gallery from Kostanjevica na Krki, presents Staš Kleindienst’s exhibition Antiarcadia at the Josip Račić Gallery. Kleindienst is an artist who, according to Goran Milovanović, director of the “Božidar Jakac” Gallery and curator of the exhibition, is certainly at this moment one of the most prominent and intriguing painters of the middle generation in Slovenia. Ten works, consisting of oil paintings on canvas created between 2020 and 2024, have been selected for Staš Kleindienst’s first solo exhibition in front of the Zagreb audience, on loan for this occasion from public and private collections in Slovenia.
(...) What is it about Staš Kleindienst’s paintings that intrigues us so much? From a central vantage point in the gallery, enabling us to take in all the displayed artworks at once, we encounter certain familiar scenes that are ingrained in our memories. The landscapes gradually receding towards the horizon are intimate and familiar, and their appearance stirs a feeling of comfort and homeliness within us. Goran Milovanić, Goran Milovanović, from the text in the exhibition catalogue.Perhaps it is precisely this moment, referred to as “our expression,” that Ljubo Babić sought in the landscapes of Croatian Zagorje and Dalmatia. But that is certainly not Kleindienst’s concept, who always adds small formats to the exhibition installations of large-scale paintings, where the visualizations of stories are even more condensed, drawing us in with a certain magnetism.
Staš Kleindienst’s exhibition titled Antiarcadia is a continuation of the successful international museum collaboration between the National Museum of Modern Art and the “Božidar Jakac” Gallery which began in 2021 with the exhibition Ties That Bind – Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and Slovenian Artists Between the Two Wars.
Biography
Staš Kleindienst graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 2007, where he also defended his MA in 2009. His works can be found in a number of private and public collections. In 2014 he received an award from the OHO group, the University of Ljubljana awarded him the 2019 Recognition of Significant Works of Art. He received Rihard Jakopič award for 2023. He lives and works in Vipava.
The exhibition was realized through the collaboration of the National Museum of Modern Art and Božidar Jakac Art Museum with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the City of Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Images:
Staš Kleindienst, Spring on the Plateau, 2024, ulje na platnu / oil on canvas / 85 x 110 cm courtesy of the artist / Photo Staš Kleindienst
Evening Rehearsal, 2020 / oil on canvas / 130 x 200 cm / City Museum of Ljubljana (MGML) / Photo Staš Kleindienst
Winter Landscape, 2021 /oil on canvas / 120 x 160 cm / Galerija Božidar Jakac – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art / Fototeka GBJ, Photo Jaka Babnik
Road Painting, 2023 / oil on canvas / 110 x 85 cm / private collection / Photo: foto Staš Kleindienst