Simon Kocjančič works in the fields of painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, installation and art zines. His formal language moves on the border between different worlds: figuration and abstraction, warm and cool colours, round and angular forms, line and colour field, etc. On the level of content, too, his works constantly oscillate between the personal and the social, the inner and the outer world.

In this exhibition, entitled Blank Realm, he presents his latest works in large formats, complemented by small paintings and prints. The central theme of the exhibition is the problem of the excess, oversaturation and exaggeration of contemporary society in general and the art system in particular, which is on the other hand accompanied by a lack of content and substance (in the immaterial sense of the word). What inflates this glittering balloon is an insatiable desire that knows no bounds and, in its greed for more and more, cannot even ask itself about its supposed meaning and purpose.

The artist approaches this subject unencumbered and with a touch of humour. His characteristic skin pink mutates into scarlet and the otherwise serene blue becomes painfully greenish. Even his recognisable recurring motifs, most of which have no specific meaning, become communicative. One of them – a characteristic circular-square shape that has appeared regularly in the artist’s work since 2017 – can appear in these paintings as a metaphor for the desire to build castles in the sky, and at the same time as a symbol of the alluring if uncertain seventh heaven. At the same time, it can also represent the opposite – a place where insatiable desire can come to rest. The motif of the brick wall, which has been an integral part of Kocjančič’s paintings since 2017, also appears in various forms – from a simple grid drawing stretching across the background of the painting, to a three-dimensional but translucent wall, to a partially or fully constructed “living” house with a pair of sad eyes. In this context, the motif can be understood as an allusion to a meaningless construction, since the brick wall does not support, conceal or protect anything, or to an imaginary obstacle, a fixed idea that cannot be gotten rid of and blocks any forward movement.

It has been written many times, and it holds true this time as well, that Simon Kocjančič’s enigmatic visual language does not aim to please and appeal to our senses, but on the contrary; the multisensory motifs, indefinable shapes and impure colours stimulate ambivalent feelings, emotions and thoughts, and thus a discomfort that makes us think.

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Simon Kocjančič  (1979) graduated in Painting from the Arthouse College of Visual Arts in Ljubljana. He has presented his work in several solo exhibitions, including Galerija P74 (2016) and Škuc Gallery (2022), as well as in numerous group presentations in Slovenia and abroad. He lives and works as a contemporary artist in Truške near Koper.