Erik Mavrič is recognised on the Slovenian art scene for his monumental works that address existential themes and, in this sense, particularly the relationship between the individual and the world. What connects all these works, be it the transcription of a biblical text on used packaging, the gilding of 400 kilogrammes of bread, the mural in a gallery made with a coloured pencil, the depiction of 325 pebbles on wooden tiles or the redrawing of a starry sky with a biro on newsprint, is the essentially simple but lengthy, uniform and repetitive process of their creation. Each piece has taken the artist months or even years to complete, using the most common materials and tools. And by closely interweaving his creative process with his everyday surroundings and ordinary life, Mavrič imbues his works with a profound existential dimension.

The same applies to his large-format drawings, which are created on various supports, such as paper, wood or plasterboard, but always using charcoal. The artist chose this technique primarily for its existential authenticity. Charcoal is not only the first substance used by man to create art, as prehistoric wall paintings testify, but it also expresses the fragility and transience of life on a material and formal level. The starting point for a drawing is a motif that the artist takes from everyday life or dreams, transfers to the surface and then follows the associations that lead him to a second, third, fourth, and so on, until the whole emerges. The drawing is therefore not created following a predetermined plan, but unfolds gradually, as a series of motifs that spring up one by one in an associative way from a blank background. On this path, the artist follows an inner psychological tension, so that the images that are gradually unravelled from his (sub)consciousness are usually imbued with a sense of alienation, unease or fear.

Even though we are used to the unease of his drawings, this increases in his most recent works to dark horror and morbid grotesque. The recent drawings show figurative scenes embedded in megalomaniac infrastructural constructions such as viaducts, bridges and tunnels, or in natural environments, with elements such as vegetation or rocks of enormous dimensions. All these landscapes are menacing in themselves and even more so when they turn out to be scenes of immense violence. The figures who inflict violence on each other are more or less the same, genderless, without emotions or feelings of pain, robotic, so that it somehow seems familiar, everyday, routine. The figurative scenes of violence are sometimes of mass dimensions, sometimes reduced to a few individual figures wandering through an apocalyptic landscape, and in some drawings, there are no figures at all – they show a world without any trace of humanity. As a cohesive whole, the drawings appear to outline the trajectory of the future development of human society, beginning with the present. If we had to describe it in one word, it would be – abundance. However, when we look at the drawings and reflect on its price, far-reaching consequences and uncertain destination, we truly find no reasons for optimism.

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Erik Mavrič (1979) studied Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where he completed his BA in 2004 and his MA four years later. During his studies, he received the Prešeren Student Award and a Special Mention of the Jury at the 16th Slovenian Sculpture Exhibition in 2012. He has presented his work in many solo exhibitions, including at Krško Gallery (2014), Alkatraz Gallery in Ljubljana (2018), Božidar Jakec Gallery in Kostanjevica na Krki (2022), Ivan Grohar Gallery in Škofja Loka (2023) and Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana (2024), as well as in numerous group presentations at home and abroad. He lives and works in the Brežice area.
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