Curator
Maša Žekš
Y Gallery is hosting our “house artist” Sašo Vrabič’s solo exhibition. Although the broader public has recently become accustomed to his dynamic figural paintings, this time the versatile artist presents us with a series of works on paper, created in pastel and watercolour techniques. This extensive, insightful and memorable series of intense human portraits is titled Non-existent. In its essence, along with heightened intensity and milieu expression, it addresses a handful of current concerns related to the artist's personal practice as well as to various faced by modern society.
The presented portraits are fairly large in scale and depict incredibly accurate mappings of faces created by artificial intelligence. The free online tool enables the user to generate random, unique human faces that look exceptionally mundane yet are surprisingly natural and realistic at the same time. These are not real people, of course, however, when a user generates a new persona on the platform, the previous one is forever erased. In terms of the inimitability of the face, its uniqueness, and the ephemerality of existence, experimenting with the algorithm approaches both the nature of real life and certain impulses of painting. In terms of conceptualisation, Sašo Vrabič skilfully refers both to the theme of the transience of mankind, our connection with technology and self-destruction, as well as to the traditional characteristics of portraiture, namely, a realistic and illustrative recreation of the image of a specific individual. This connection appears as a twisted paradox, as the artist portrays artificial people whose realistic face and artistic accessibility fill the viewer with false empathy and trigger unexpected emotional responses. On the other hand, these faces are fleeting and unrepeatable, just like every human life. Even if it seems that the direct connection to human impermanence and its gradual disappearance primarily addresses the natural life cycle, the starting points of the project lie in slightly more subtle, yet no less critical spheres, characterised by current world events, and in some location-specific cases, also represent a direct link to domestic events in recent history.
In the series, impatience, immediacy and imminent disappearance are also reflected in the technique, which the artist has applied with a sufficient measure of experimentation and acceptance of the properties of the materials used. The extremely sensitive and tactile pastel itself requires adaptation and a different approach, and the final product is less stable and, if poorly protected, quickly destroyed. With the primitive exhibition method of hanging unframed works on the wall, where the paper quickly crumples and constantly flutters about, the artist explores unencumbered approaches to the material, and in doing so, fortifies his search for artistic and technical perfection perfectly. In addition, this destructive process is represented by portraits in which the pigment is deliberately dissolved in alcohol and water. The partly watercolour series Non-existent is therefore characterised by the gradual fading and utter disappearance of the portraits, while simultaneously offering an insight into the technical specifications of the author’s research.
In contrast to technical innovations and the currently trendy artistic connection to artificial intelligence, the questioning of the relationship between man and technology is an integral part of the author’s continual, finely elaborated content. This time, contemplating the independence, dependence and naivety of man in relation to developing novel technologies arises from the very creative starting point; it multifacetedly illustrates the burning issue of the balance of power, where the almighty machine and the casual human stand in opposition. At first glance, a simple series of portraits thrives in a spiral of contradictions, where tampering with complex human psychology and irrationality results in an unbalanced evaluation of real (even faster disappearing) lives. Regarding the complex issue of multifaceted authorship and indirect commentary on the ongoing conflict, erased and displaced human lives, the author (non-)performatively excludes himself from making statements about works of art or circumstances relating to the cultural public, hence he remains non-existent.
Sašo Vrabič (1974) graduated in painting and obtained his master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana at the Department of Graphics in 2001. He tells the tale of modern man by depicting figurative scenes and portraits based on photorealistic foundations. Classical painting has an important and irreplaceable place in his creative perception, but the author also presents new ways of expressing the latter. By constantly intertwining extremely naturalistic images, texts, collages, graffiti, and abstract brushstrokes, Vrabič creates his own unique expression, packed with humour and playfulness. He comments on the nature of modern society, saturated and driven by information technology, and explores the realm of interpersonal communication. He often opts to depict everyday scenes, with which he addresses the pitfalls of the modern era and its high-tech tools, human behaviour, intimacy, and consumerism. In his works, the everyday ambience is captured in a web of varied compositions and transformed with the aid of strong light contrasts, adding a surreal atmosphere to the portrayed scenes.
