Maša Štrok: Committee

20 May 2009 > 06 June 2009

The only link between the conservational work (that the author does in order to survive) and painting (that happens spontaneously) is, that for her own paintings, she uses the frames and under-frames from the conservation dump and restores them prior to the stretching and grounding of the canvas to use them for her own paintings.

The concept of her paintings is based on a masochistic urge of an individual for subordination to various institutions. In her paintings that are distinctly figurative, Maša Štroka depicts the so called “committees” as human characters of robust appearance. The commission represents an important “instance” in the life of an individual that usually determine his or her way of life,thus directly affecting the individual’s social and economic position within the society.

The texts accompanying her paintings form an integral part, and the female painter extracts them from quotations of the lyrics of famous pop performers like Ted Milton, Amy Winehouse, Disciplina kičme, The Cramps, Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson, Buldožer, Žoambo Žoet Workestrao…

The intensity of the chosen colours and the lyrics do not designate some apparent state of joy and gaiety but rather an auto-ironic game of the female author.

Maša Štrok was born in 1973 in Zagreb, Croatia. She has graduated in painting at the Art Academy in Zagreb, Croatia. Since 1995 she has been working at the Conservation Institute in Croatia in the department of easel painting. In 2000 she took part in expert studies at the Studio restauro di pinti in Florence, Italy. Until now she has participated in several independent as well as group exhibitions in Croatia. She lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia.

The exhibition has been supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana, cultural department.