Bio / Statement:
Awarded the 2018 OHO prize for emerging visual artists in Slovenia – Neža Knez works in diverse media ranging from audio, video, photography, drawing and classical sculpture. She views her practice as a “sensorial research of perceptions with different senses, playing with visibility and invisibility, dealing with the question of the (thinking) body. I am interested in connections between body, voice and senses, their relation to the space, their communication with objects and people in it. I am looking for something »in between«, some kind of emptiness, elusive »blind spots« that could never be caught in language or representation.”
Knez seeks to push normality to its limit by incorporating everyday things which are so close to us that they often seem to be overlooked or unusual. By creating events and connecting people, she experiments with the usage of her own body but also with bodies of others. She allows the rawness of material to guide her so that the work itself can stay alive. She incorporates the social limits that are given to us to reveal and curve them according to her own ‘humoristic’ logics.
Upcoming shows include: 2019, Center For Contemporary Arts Celje (Slovenia) ; Gallery P74, Ljubljana (Slovenia); Gallery AŽ, Zagreb (Croatia). 2018, MLZ art dep, Trieste (Italy); t SCCA – Center for contemporary arts, (Ljubljana) Slovenia; House of Culture Pivka, Pivka (Slovenia) ; Center For Contemporary Arts Celje (Slovenia)
Recent exhibitions (solo and group) include: 2018: Gallery Zelenica (ROG), Walking research with Martina Jurak, Ljubljana (Slovenia) ; P74 Gallery, Deus ex machina, Ljubljana (Slovenia) ; Center For Contemporary Arts Celje – Likovni salon, Roll the sleeves, Celje (Slovenia); Gallery Kortil, Thinking (about) images, Imag(in)e Ka-mi-ze, Reka (Croatia); Gallery Kunsthalle, Thinking about images, Graz (Austria). In 2017: Kunst off-Space/Narrenkastl, The love (T)Act, Frohnleiten (Austria); Gallery Vetrinjski dvor, The love (T)Act, Maribor (Slovenia); GalleryGallery and Gallery KiniSiska, Bodies on pedestals, Ljubljana (Slovenia) ; Mediterranea 18 Young Artist Biennale, Under the hayrack, Tirana (Albania) ; Gallery Equrna, Difference between two bodies, Slovenia (Ljubljana) ; Gallery Sira, Dis-communication, Croatia (Zagreb) ; Gallery Zelenica, Exhibition of Slovenian contemporary art, Slovenia, (Ljubljana); Gallery Zelenica – ROG factory, Missing link, Ljubljana (Slovenia) ; Youth Biennial exhibition in Tirana where she received Summa cum laude for her Master’s Degree.
Besides the OHO Young Visual Artist Award, Knez is the recipient of several awards for outstanding academic achievements from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana; the Award for An Innovative approach to Graphic arts (2015); the Prešern’s award of Academy of Fine Arts (2015). She is currently part of a two-year residency at the Švicarija Creative Centre in Ljubljana.
Support: Neža Knez’s residency is made possible with support from The Trust for Mutual Understanding.
