Jože Marinč: Painter

Jože Marinč turned 70 in 2024. As he is the only visual artist living in Kostanjevica na Krki in recent decades and an important player in the popularisation of painting in the regional environment, as well as in the national sense, the GBJ will pay tribute to him with a large retrospective exhibition. He left his mark in the public space, for example, his paintings decorate the Krško hydroelectric power plant, as well as at the Jože Gorjup Primary School as a successful mentor to young budding artists and as the organiser of the still current Extempore.

He graduated from ALOU in 1979 under Prof. Janez Bernik, and two years later he completed his M. A. under him. He first exhibited at the GBJ in 1981 in the Lamut Salon with his still clearly recognisable landscapes and still lifes in calibrated shades. He returned to the salon in 1996 with a consolidated, distinctive artistic language, where colour comes to the fore. In the meantime, he also explored figuration and depicted the traditional carnival of Kostanjevica in the series The Festival/Šelmarije (1984-1986), but he is primarily known as an abstractionist who still flirts with landscapes with strong contrasts of colour. He ventured into gestural painting, using huge painting knives, after which he moved away from physical intervention in the work and invented “liquid paintings” – works that paint themselves. Later, he also devoted himself to spatial installations, culminating in the monastery church in Kostanjevica na Krki in 2004. Ten years after the exhibition in the church, he also exhibited in the Lapidarium, which he transformed into the mantle of the good man Krispan. His works radiate optimism and in wild swirls of colour fuse the power of nature, ancient rituals and local mythology with intimate worlds.

Photo: Jaka Babnik, archive GBJ