Group exhibition
Nova Gorica City Gallery, Nova Gorica (SI)

15. 3. – 26. 4. 2024
Curator: Nadja Zgonik
Co-curator: Tina Konec

Tina Konec’s work revolves around two main themes: exploring the possibilities offered by drawing as a medium and depicting nature in all of its glory. Since discovering in her final years of study that she was more attracted to drawing than painting, she has been systematically developing her vocabulary in that discipline. Her work stands out on the Slovenian scene because of her consistency, her persistent probing of the medium’s possibilities, and her systematic experimentation. She focuses on what we call the essence of drawing – the stark contrast in the black line’s relationship to its light background. She delves into the effects of pencils and different drawing substrates, tests the translucency of tracing paper, embeds drawings in light boxes, or plays with optical deception using digitised drawings. In her more recent works, her unrivalled sense of the aesthetic surprisingly collides with environmental issues to surprising effect. With the series Duality of the Beautiful, from which the works in the exhibition are taken, she confronts us in an unexpected way with the theme of encounters between nature and civilised surroundings. There is a semantic gap between the title of the works and what we see. We no longer know how to interpret the confrontation between an idyllic fragment of a conifer canopy, which is intended to evoke in the viewer a pleasant feeling of natural shelter, and an object, such as a plastic bag or a car tyre, which is a foreign body in nature, but which, discarded by man, has been there for so long that its aesthetic manifestation constitutes a part of its environment. Using the optical play of the compound image in the third dimension, with which one can behold the image such that the waste disappears, the viewers are not confronted with a direct sharpness that would arouse in them a feeling of guilt about the destruction of the environment that they would then suppress into oblivion as soon as they leave the gallery. Instead, the artist uses the soft power of the aesthetic object, whose image becomes imprinted in memory in a way that is impossible to forget.
Nadja Zgonik

Solo exhibition
Generali Gallery, Ljubljana (SI)

20. 9. – 30. 11. 2023
Curator: Petra Bizilj

More about the exhibtion:
Radio Val 202, Proti etru talk show (in slovene)

Solo exhibition
Bežigrad Gallery 1, Ljubljana, Slovenia

10. 5. – 20. 6. 2023
Curator: Miloš Bašin

Exhibition feature:
Koridor – križišča umetnosti (in Slovene)

Group exhibition (Anja Jerčič Jakob, Tina Konec, Plateauresidue, Maja Pučl, Lucija Stramec, Joni Zakonjšek)
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška, Slovenj Gradec (SI)

30. 3. – 28. 5. 2023
Curator: Katarina Hergold Germ

The fragile images of Tina Konec, who abandoned colour in her drawing of perfect forms of fragmented scenes from the life of trees, fascinate with the effect that the artist achieves with minimal means, when she draws lines and dashes on the emptiness of paper from which images gradually thicken and finally emerge as crowns of conifers. The latter, despite their otherwise sharp and prickly nature, appear soft and undulating in her depictions, and layered on top of each other they create the impression of unusual density; they are like a thick needle-strewn blanket through which light penetrates the darkness below only here and there. Lines represents the main element of her visual expression. In a technically perfected manner, she builds scenes with a condensed stringing together of countless lines, which in the end create the illusion of an incredibly effective close-up of particles of the needle structures of the treetops, framing those parts of the whole that are attracted by the light of the sky. Through the rapid undulation of the organic forms of branches, we can sense the contact of the material with the spiritual on a symbolic level. Tina Konec’s gaze directed towards the heights of treetops shows us again and again decentralized images of trees that seem to stretch far beyond the depicted. Subtle images woven from a microcosm of densely intertwined organic shapes flow from picture to picture in a host of monochromatic variations, creating when juxtaposed the illusion of a forested landscape. Sometimes Konec places the individual elements of her integrated cycles in spatial layouts through mutually coexisting connected parts, which thus become a single whole and work like an inverted map of wooded expanses. Subtle images of trees, objects of the artist’s fascination for many years, appear in her cycles in different atmospheres: in addition to scenes of hazy shadows, where the visual field is based on a double-layered transparent scheme that contributes to the persuasiveness of the depicted, there are also, in contrast to daytime scenes drawn with ink on light paper, the extremely interesting night series, where the treetops live their secret lives on a dark background, and the varied structures of coniferous branches and twigs in the absence of all colours on the dark surface seem almost like a photographic negative. Night is a special time of the day, when people go into a different, special perceptual state. When the dense darkness absorbs all of the observer’s senses, the morphology of the trees also changes: clear, recognizable shapes disappear and a different vision of the world opens up. But even if the trees in the forest where people feel sheltered during the day at night turn into scary apparitions of the human imagination, in Tina Konec’s night paintings, they are anything but in the dense dark landscapes, we feel a sense of serenity.
Katarina Hergold Germ

Group exhibition (Nika Erjavec, Tina Konec, Tea Kralj, Tilyen Mucik)
Gallery Božidar Jakac, Kostanjevica na Krki (SI)

9. 4. – 19. 6. 2022
Curator: Miha Colner

Even though numerous civilisations have, during the course of history, managed to establish an apparent division between wild nature and man-made culture, the mentioned distinction is today viewed as forced and skilled. However, nature has always represented an inspiration for culture and art, as these have always summarised its forms, structures and manner of operation. /…/ In her large format drawings, Tina Konec focuses on subtly depicting natural phenomena, which are a part of her everyday experience. The amorphic compositions in her works summarise the irregularities and non-symmetricalness of organic forms, which can be reflected on various levels of the viewer’s perception. In her drawings, the artis depicts actual or imaginary shadows, treetops, and branches, which are so strongly stylised they function as silhouettes. Fragments of plants drawn in great detail remain trapped in the apparent non-space, regardless of the mimetics, even though they are limited by the edge by the drawing. However, they still appear to coil towards their eternal goal – the source of light. Although the artist clings to the most elemental motif in the human’s immediate surroundings, her works are almost dream-like in their appearance, for they present nature outside of the rational frames of perception. The depicted vegetation can become symbolic images of life as such, for vegetation is unconditionally one of the key elements of the human universe.
Miha Colner

Solo exhibition
UGM Studio, Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor

10. 12. 2021 – 12. 2. 2022
Curator: Andreja Borin

By employing incredibly simple visual means, Tina Konec creates exceptionally complex works, distinguished by both sensitivity and extraordinary presence. Although inspired by the oldest possible source—nature, her drawings are entirely contemporary. The artist does not strictly copy nature, but rather condenses and dissolves her “tree crowns” into a delicately sensed rhythm in a comfortable and intuitive manner. In the approach she inserts the painting onto a blank piece of paper, in apparent simplicity, in a very condensed expressive and poetic character, there is the occasional sensation of the essence of Eastern art. The drawings direct the viewer’s attention to the tree crowns and the sky, as if an open door leads to an inconceivable infinity. We encounter peace and perfection everywhere as we look through dense dark landscapes and little isolated shoots.
Being one of nature’s basic forms, the tree symbolises a bridge between the earth in which it is rooted and the crown that reaches out to the light. It represents the connectivity of all things in the universe, as well as the bridge between the material and spiritual natures of being. It also is a metaphor for human existence, pulled between the earthly pole of a complex but harsh reality and the divine pole of spiritual freedom, inspiration, and creativity. Tina Konec’s drawings are based on the material pole of the world (the artist also uses photography in the first stage of drawing), but there is a shift to the transcendent during the creating process. The artist is able to bring together vital elements from both poles to form a recognisable and compelling totality that invites the viewer on a silent, meditative journey. In her series of drawings entitled Shadows, the artist establishes a focused and quiet presence. She is intrigued by the intangible, fluid, and elusive transition between what still exists and what has already vanished. It appears that we are witnessing a movement from one pole to the other, that we are in the midst of a transition, which in reality may be a departure or even an arrival. In her video work, which is included in her exhibition for the first time, the artist examines similar interactions.
Tina Konec’s drawings and video in this exhibition were created during the current epidemic lockdown and isolation, when the artist lived and worked at her home in Oplotnica. Connected with the environment of Pohorje and the local coniferous trees, she created open, evocative images in which we can recognise numerous micro and macro forms or phenomena: wrinkles on the palms, water currents, clouds, hair, mists, fractals, the cosmos, etc. Tina Konec’s drawings are, in fact, not just about coniferous trees; they also provide a glimpse into the world’s hard-to-articulate nature, which occasionally flashes like a golden grain in the turbulent river of contemporary art—into the unfathomable range of being, extending from the deepest roots to the highest branches, rustling in the winds of freedom and inspiration.
Andreja Borin

From the media:
Newspaper Večer (in Slovene)
Contemporary Art / Sodobna umetnost (in Slovene)

Group exhibition (Tina Konec, Agate Lielpetere, Sara Rman)
Extended Gallery, Ljubljana (SI)

7. 10. – 5. 11. 2021
Curator: Teja Kosi
Organization: Creative Centre Poligon

While the time of the global pandemic threw the world of its axle and transformed the familiar everyday life, leading to increased violence towards and sacrificing of women, the current »disaster patriarchy” continues to use the crisis as a means to re-establish control, dominance and the erasure of the hard-won women’s rights. In spite of this patriarchal machine, powered by the current crisis, a diagnosis has long since been established through statistics: within the field of the arts, only 11,2% of all the recipients of the prestigious Prešeren awards have been women, with 82,5% of them working on the stage or in front of a camera. It was the consideration of personal stories and positions of female visual artists from the youngest, post-transition generation – born in the 1990ies, which has also been hit hardest by the general precarization of life, that served as a starting point for the group exhibition “The Glass Ceiling”.
Teja Kosi

Exhibition feature:
Magazine Outsider (in Slovene) 

Solo exhibition
Ravnikar Gallery Space, Ljubljana (SI)

15. 1. – 8. 2. 2019

With her In the Fog exhibition Tina Konec presents her newest series of works, which follows the progression of one day: it begins with a sleepy January morning wrapped in fog, behind which the sun occasionally shows its rays. This idea came about when the artist was piling art works of larger formats one on top of another. Drawn elements were showing through the paper, creating an extraordinary visual effect. One autumn morning, while observing the fog, a constant companion of those chilly days, the artist suddenly envisioned her future works in the mist, something that had until then represented a visual riddle. In its very core, the drawing preserves the artist’s appreciation and respect for nature, the sensibility of which she captures on paper. With their apparent universality, her works point to the fragility of impermanence. The artist, with a meditative process, portrays a self-sufficient, untamed nature, the diminishment of which will be, due to the ubiquitous concept of perpetual growth and progress, felt by mankind. Both nature and art do not merely represent a place for a privileged withdrawal and respite from reality, but also a gathering place for new ideas, in-depth reflections, values and hopes.
Teja Kosi

From the media:
Radio Val 202, Proti etru talk show
Mladina Newspaper, Portrait

Group exhibition (dialogue with Maess Anand)
Kibela, MMC Kibla, Maribor (SI)

10. 5. – 8. 6. 2019
Curator: Nina Jeza

The exhibition is conceived as a conversation between two drawing artists who perceive the drawing as a living organism and the subject of scientific and emotional exploration, which they develop to the point of visual culmination. On display is an oeuvre of drawings created in a traditional, analog way, while still retaining singularity of execution.
The works of Tina Konec are marked, on one side, by her enthusiasm over cosmic creation and her sublime realization of the fragmented nature, and thus of the endless possibilities of the shapes of universe. Her creative starting point is represented by forms which may well be versatile (they are reminiscent of tree trunks or widespread treetops), however, it is only beyond their formal delineation (which is achieved by means of the abstract white, or dark drawing base, without frames, freed from any significance) that they truly come alive. Form becomes tangible, so to speak; enhanced with meditative intuition, it altogether establishes an additional social, in most cases intimate, dimension.
Nina Jeza

From the media:
Newspaper Večer

Solo exhibition
City Gallery Fonticus, Grožnjan (CRO)

23. 7. – 15. 8. 2018
Curator: Eugen Borkovsky

The artist’s thought process resembles a flow of dream images, its sensory and cognitive experience evolving throughout the art process. Although the things and their states around us are always changing, Tina Konec manages to grasp the fleeting motions and etheric moments in unique artistic forms. These moments are hard to record, submit to technique and materialize. All that would be impossible without artistic will and precise technique from which her art stems. The artist’s visual language reveals the authenticity of the moment, with the kind of perception and understanding that borders on scientific observation.
Eugen Borkovsky

Exhibition feature:
Akademija Art (in Croatian)