Ana Sluga: Fragile

Opening: 15 May 2026, at 7pm.

With the exhibition entitled Fragile in a former monastery church of GBJ, artist Ana Sluga showcases new paintings that explore contemporary social and interpersonal relationships, position of an individual in the cacophonous world of the information age, and the spirit of collectivism in an extremely individualistic society. In her works, she combines figurative elements, psychological tension, and a distinct sense of the eerie everyday experience that characterises the modern era. The artist connects these diverse visual, spatial, and conceptual elements into an ambient installation that communicates with the audiences on multiple levels and, at the same time, complements the exhibition space.

In her body of work, a particularly notable element are the portraits of women, which do not appear as classical representations of past and present societal structures and conventions, but rather, in an extremely universal sense, depict scenes of inner states, unspoken relationships, and subtle shifts in power. The exhibition thus explores the search for an appropriate language to depict the reality of the first quarter of the 21st century, a period marked by uncertainty, information overload, and the fragility of intimacy. With their metaphorical meanings, Sluga’s works draw on some fundamental existential questions regarding the role of an individual in society and the relationship between society and community. The exhibition set-up is conceived in dialogue with the space of former monastery church, whose architecture emphasises the dramaturgy of the works and enhances the sense of a holistic experience—ranging from quiet contemplation to more intense emotional responses.

Ana Sluga (1981) is a painter and visual artist who graduated in 2004 at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (ALUO) in Ljubljana. She undertook her master’s degree in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (ALUO) in Ljubljana and at the Estonian Academy of Arts (Eesti Kunstiakadeemia) in Tallinn, Estonia. In 2018, she obtained a master’s degree in painting. Since 2003, he has been actively working and exhibiting in Slovenian cultural milieu and international art scene. In her artistic practice, she focuses on stylised and metaphorical representations of contemporary everyday experience, which she typically makes by using a distinctive flat painterly form and pure colours, as well as other artistic media and methods. She lives and works in Ljubljana, Ljubljana.