Natalija Šeruga and Milan Golob: The Undefeated Flame, Everything Else Is a Piece of Cake

Natalija Šeruga and Milan Golob
The Undefeated Flame, Everything Else Is a Piece of Cake

The common denominator to this exhibition is a love and passion for painting, and with painting.

For what I am doing – I am much too slow, and it all absolutely transcends me. But step by step, I am making my way forward. Over the course of the last decade, I have collected more than 600 paintings; Bert Long (1940-2013), 2013, oil on canvas, 23×28 cm / Joseph Beuys (1921-1986), 2004, oil on canvas, 45×30 cm / Ingeborg Hartner (1920-2002), 2006, oil on canvas, 26×30 cm / Filomena Flac (1919-2006), 2008, oil on canvas, 18×23 cm / Brana Promyschljanskaja (1923-2004), 2009, oil on canvas, 18×26 cm / Ljubica Rafajlovič (1932-1958), 2009, oil on canvas, 18×24 cm / … But titles for the paintings keep coming in and waiting. I finish one and think of a myriad of titles; I smoke a cigarette and already there are five hundred new ones. Waiting are: Gizela Debeljak (1870-1960) / Sebastian Kralik (1955-2012) / Karoline Roschmann (1901-1977) / Elena Cappannini Fallarino (1939-2009) / Karl Gamper (1937-2013) / … It is all a great pleasure to me, including the four-cycle dictum.
The exhibition features some 200 completed paintings and around 100 titles waiting for me to create paintings for them.
Milan Golob

Nine paintings created in the spirit of: Break and build (Solve. Coagula.) … for new enterprises, for moving forward, for other things. Every consciousness creates a new unconscious; every contribution creates a new nothing. And during all of this, without stopping, I am pushing my life/painting forward. The idea for a painting is the atmosphere, inside which I am working; a sensation I am trying to reach and catch in an artwork. I want to create another world, a feeling of the past and old and a fresh beginning again and again. The vision comes from the inside and I never know how much it is really infected by the conscious and unconscious perception of the outside world. The vision is open and blurred and it progresses with each subsequent material intervention into the painting. The inner concept is the driving force behind visual decisions with materials on the painting. To me, painting is an activity with no purpose other than a passionate discovery of new things – and of course, Louise, I still believe you that I paint, because I know no other ways of seduction. It is true, to free myself from the solitude to which I was doomed by birth, I am willing to nourish such a pitiful and scornful desire. Any other comment about my work is but a pale approximation through four different doors: needle, the past, unknown and quiet landscapes filled with ornament and old books, material.
Natalija Šeruga

Milan Golob (1963) completed his BA in 1987 at the Department of physics, Faculty of natural sciences and technology in Ljubljana, followed by another BA at the Department of painting at the Academy of fine arts in Ljubljana. Between January 1996 and December 2000 he worked as editor of the magazine Likovne besede (Art Words). he has exhibited both on solo and group exhibitions, home and abroad. Winner of numerous recognition and other awards, such as the Students' Prešeren Award for painting (1992) and the Henkel Art Award – Nominee (2005). He has perfected his studies in Berlin (2007) and received a working scholarship from the Ministry of culture (2007) as well as the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2003). He lives and works near the town of Radenci.
www.golob-gm.si

Natalija Šeruga (1971) graduated in 1999 at the Department of painting, Academy of fine arts in Ljubljana, followed by a MA degree in 2003. Ever since her first solo exhibition at the Celje Fine Arts' Salon (Likovni salon) in 1999, she has been continuosly present as part of national and foreign museums and galleries' exhibition programs. Winner of the Students' Prešeren Award (1996), she extended her studies in Berlin in 2007, and was a Henkel Art Award nominee (2008). In 2010 she received a working scholarship from the Ministry of culture. Her works appear in a number of art collections. Lives and works in Radenci.
www.natalijaseruga.si

Milan Golob; Amelie Neresheimer (1850-1924), 2013, oil on canvas, 31×31 cm. (detail)
Natalija Šeruga; Merv, 2013, acryl on canvas, 62×81 cm. (detail)

About the exhibition

18 October – 8 November 2013
Opening: 18 October 2013 at 7pm
KiBela / KIBLA Maribor

KiBela, space for art, is open from Monday to Friday between 9am and 9pm.