Slađana Matić Trstenjak: Soft Fields

Slađana Matić Trstenjak: Soft Fields
10 July–8 August 2026
artKIT

You are cordially invited to the opening of Soft Fields, a solo exhibition by Slađana Matić Trstenjak, which will take place on Friday, 10 July 2026, at 7 p.m. at the artKIT exhibition space.

INVITATION (PDF)
CURATORIAL TEXT (PDF)

In her artistic practice, Slađana Matić Trstenjak has established herself as an artist who extends painting beyond its traditional surface, positioning it instead as a field of perception, material memory, and chromatic thought.

The artist’s works unfold as soft, membrane-like structures of color fields in which light, gaze, and meaning are reflected. The layering and interpenetration of these color fields are articulated through the principle of collage, giving rise to open compositions unbound by rigid order that evoke an Informel sensibility for spontaneous gesture, material texture, and the unconstrained organization of pictorial space. A range of materials, from pigment to textile, creates a complex tactile fabric in which color condenses into substance, while substance, in turn, unfolds once again into chromatic vibration. Color thus exceeds the purely optical, emerging as an active force that structures space, guides perception, and shapes the emotional topography of the work.

Her art inhabits a space of gently restrained tension and silence, where the dynamic balance between contrast and harmony is suffused with an unusual, almost contemplative calm and grace, inviting the viewer into a slow, attentive, and deeply immersive experience.

Biography

Slađana Matić Trstenjak (b. 1985, Bosnia and Herzegovina) received her MFA in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts Široki Brijeg, University of Mostar in 2010, where she studied under Professor Antun B. Švaljek. To date, she has held more than forty solo exhibitions, including at Abstract Project Gallery (Paris, France, 2026), Vladimir Bužančić Gallery (Zagreb, Croatia, 2025), Gallery of Contemporary Art (Pančevo, Serbia, 2024), BV Gallery (Klagenfurt, Austria, 2024), Gallery 96 (Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023), Gallery of the Maribor Fine Artists Society (2022), the 9th International Festival of Fine Arts – Collage and Assemblage (Kranj, Slovenia, 2020), and UGM Šop, Maribor Art Gallery (2019), among others. She has participated in more than 150 group exhibitions, including at the May Salon of the Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies – Soft Power; at the Ptuj City Gallery (Slovenia, 2025); Réalités Nouvelles at the Taiwan Wu Deng Yi Art Museum (Taipei, Taiwan, 2024); Biennial of Textile Art BIEN at Globus Exhibition Hall (Kranj, Slovenia, 2023); Metamorphoses (Lacuna Festival) at the Artenmala Gallery (Punta Mujeres, Spain, 2023); Different, Excellent: Young Artists at the Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies Gallery (Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2020); and Unknown Proximity: Slovenian Contemporary Painting, Proféta Gallery (Budapest, Hungary, 2018). In 2023, she received the Prix Le Quotidien de l’Art at the Salon Réalités Nouvelles in Paris, where the award jury included Stéphanie Pioda, art critic for Centre Pompidou magazine. She is also the recipient of the working scholarship for young artists, awarded by the Slovenian Ministry of Culture (2019), as well as awards from the Maribor Fine Artists Society (DLUM) in 2025, 2019, and 2016, among others. She lives and works as a freelance visual artist in Maribor, Slovenia, where the Municipality of Maribor has awarded her an artist’s studio.

https://www.sladana.com/

< Soft Fields, acrylic, textile, paper, permanent marker on canvas, 2026

Production: X-OP Association for Contemporary Art
Co-organized by: ACE KIBLA, Association CODE BLUE
Supported by: Municipality of Maribor

artKIT, Glavni trg 14, Maribor
Opening hours: Tuesday–Friday from 3 to 7 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.