Gallery

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75/4.
The studio,1975,
oil on canvas,
50 x 65 cm
Rok Zelenko
PICTIA
Introduction: Nives Marvin

Intimate connotation in the paiting work of Rok Zelenko
In 1975 Rok Zelenko graduated from the painting departement of the Ljubljana
Fine Arts Academy with a thesis on The problem of realism in painting. He is
one of the rare Slovene painters and ceramists who keeps alive the tradition
of figurative art. An in-depth analysis of his body of creative work reveals also
his identification with the environment that he has chosen for his home: Istria.
Beginning in 1980 he lived with family in Grožnjan and in 1998 he moved
to Izola. This has marked his ceative modus vivendi. In the mid sixties as a
high school student he started visiting, together with his father, the Istrian
hinterland and in particular Grožnjan. He was discovering the landscape, the
architecture and the special light and mystic atmosphere. These are to this
day recognizable motifs in the paintings and ceramics that define his poetic
independence from trends of the moment. Zelenko belongs to the circle of
pioneers who created the unique phenomenon of decennial activity of the
Grožnjan art colony.
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From his earliest years Rok encountered the charms of the creating activity
of his mother Sonja, well known ceramist and his father Karel, established
professional sculptor. He grew up acquainted with European art capitals
and with the many foreign artists, musicians and writers who worked and
socialized in Grožnjan, town of artists. Choosing a vocation in the arts was
clearly the most natural choice for him.
Whether in paintings or ceramics the motif world of Rok’s images is always
recognizable: the countryside and its typical vegetation, landscapes in
different lights that reflect on stone facades, sea landscapes, portraits and
nudes, all reveal the hand of the artist through colour scale and composition.
Over the decades he elaborated many different thematic cycles: Istrian nights,
Artists, Red, Lea, Mediterranean, Myth, Muses, The city, Inferno, The seas,
Genesis, The picture of architecture, Memories from a dream and Paris.
Realistically outlined segments serve as counterweights to backgrounds
defined only by colour in such a way that events and stories take on a special,
even cosmic atmosphere. Light always plays a particular role. Whether in
glowing sunshines or looming darkness we recognize the mystery of rural
Istria, the character of sea towns or the atmosphere of European cities that
only a sensitive artist feels and perceives, and brings to life in a selected
medium. His aim is never just to document reality: a particular motif serves as
an external challenge that triggers his internal creative forces.

Spiritual, fabulous, mythical, natural or urban realities and situations are
interpreted as the most subjective experiences, conditioned only with
inner creative necessity. This sometimes leads to partial stylizations or
deformations, even conscious distortions. Some pictures act as peculiar
fairy tales that leave no space for the acquisitions of modern civilization.
Zelenko’s canvases, as well as his ceramics are dreamlike fantasies whose
messages threaded with mystery enable us from within aesthetic comfort
to free phantasies and dreams, as well as reflections of past and present
about the meaning and the role of the elementary and autochtonous and of
our industrial and chaotic present. Despite recognizable scenes his pictures
emanate peace; they lead us to a rare silence, to meditation without stress
and destruction. They live their life - independant of outside influences and
current artistic trends – the most authentic imprint of the artist’s mind.
Despite his ties to the landscape tradition, Rok Zelenko occasionally, within
his medium, responds to actual events in his environment. In the beginning of
the nineties, he created Inferno cycle as a deeply intimate soliloquy on events
in Jugoslavija and consequently on the war in Croatia and the killing in Bosnia.
Zelenko’s main expressive means is undoubtedly colour. His use of blue is
immediately recognizable. Its values and shades in a spectrum that ranges
from the darkest to transparent bright, dominate the surface of canvases. He
thoughtfully adds other colours, cold and warm, to emphasize these infinite
dimensions of blue. With illuminated and shadowed parts they create illusions
of space. Beyond their material and symbolic meanings they convey in some
pictures an almost childishly relaxed atmosphere. Mysterious countrysides lit
by moonlight, corners of old towns and genre scenes, sunny beaches; where
the elements of earth and water merge and then join the element of air and
fire; time and again these archetypes supply the suggestive external triggers
and charms that lead the painter to create. And colours especially are means
that enable the artist to transpose his perception and feelings into numerous
interpretations, new messages, that are an intimate realization of the
objective and the spiritual. They become universal symbols. Figurative motifs
are an essential part of the outlook of a sensitive artist, they are his means
to express visual and emotional dimensions. With knowledge, experience
and skill he transforms them into works that offer an extremely subjective
perception of our time and space.
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NIVES MARVIN

istrian nights
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80/11.
Festival II, 1980,
oil on canvas,
60 x 80 cm

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6

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74/11. 74/11.
Evening, 1974,
acrylic on canvas,
60 x 73 cm
81/4.
81/4.
The South, 1981,
acrylic on canvas,
90 x 120 cm

artists
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90/11.
The parrot, 1990,
oil on canvas,
108 x 100 cm

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10
00/25.
Fallen angels, 2000,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 75 cm

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80/12.
Museum, 1980,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 74 cm

ed
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82/3.
The red curtain, 1982,
acrylic on canvas,
120 x 90 cm

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14

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77/4.
Three poets, 1977,
acrylic on canvas,
81 x 61 cm
01/1.
Plaisir, 2001,
acrylic on canvas,
100 x 80 cm

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82/5.
Paris, 1982,
acrylic on canvas,
120 x90 cm
By the end of my academic studies, family ties had loosened.
Love problems, new friendships. Our paths went in different directions.
The most important friendships were now in Istria; a companionship
with organ builder Patrick Collon, and with singer of early music Andrea
von Ramm. In her Grožnjan house Andrea held courses in medieval
theatre, with a colourful international cast drawn from her students at
the Schola Cantorum in Basel. There was a lot of criticising, cooking,
drinking, creating, socialising, fun and discussions of the sort I had
never experienced or could ever have imagined before.
In June 1975 the group was working on a project based on a medieval
mystery play. At the end of the performance it was planned to burn the
director of the play, Andrea, as a witch. For the local politicians who
supervised all the activities, this was too much. The Seventies were
the years of renewed ideological orthodoxy, and they banned the show.
Andrea von Ram was expelled both from Grožnjan and the country.
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I hoped other Grožnjan artists would support in opposing the
ban against Andrea but they were too much annoyed by the nonconventional
behaviour of her group. Something broke within me;
against the surroundings, regime, community and family.
But summer continued, artists, musicians, models. In our
neighbourhood we became an inseparable socializing faction:
Boris Horvat, Jani and Meta Seljak, Marina Abramović, Neša Paripović.
By the end of September there was no difference between day and
night anymore.
...But in November I went to do army service in Prokuplje in southern
Serbia.

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ceramics

80/11. 12/14.
Porton Atrium and Loggia in Grožnjan, 2012,
ceramic tiles, 4 ceiling compositions
100 x 70 cm; frieze 20 x 870 cm
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Plate,
pins and hangings

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12/14.
Porton Loggia, 2012,
ceramic ceiling composition,
100 x 70 cm
During High school I had helped my parents make ceramics.
It was a way to earn my keep, and to buy books. After my return from the
army I started my own production. I perfected the technique at home
and started to develop my own style. For us, high inflation and lack of
competition during the Seventies and Eighties proved to be favorable
for selling.
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After moving to Grožnjan, my first goal was to organize the studio.
Lea proved to have a talent for ceramics, working in a very personal and
original way. But it was not easy to start. The only warm place in the
house was the kitchen. Up in my studio in the attic it was freezing.
The following season we tided up the groundfloor room, which had
already been used for exhibitions by Kantušer’s wife, American painter
Grace Renzi. In 1982 we inaugurated our own space: Gallery Porton.
Lea also got a teaching job.
We would spend the following thirty years restoring the house,
covering the walls with different ceramic techniques.

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mediterranean
86/1.
Venezia, 1986,
acrylic on canvas,
116 x 100 cm

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88/2.
Carnival in Venice, 1988,
acrylic on canvas,
60 x 73 cm
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04/17.
The ship of fools, 2004,
acrylic on canvas,
60 x 78 cm
15/8.
Verona, 2015,
acrylic on canvas,
50 x 70cm

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myth
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01/41.
The tree of Eve, 2001,
acrylic on canvas,
90 x 90 cm

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94/21.
The secret, 1994,
acrylic on canvas,
65 x 50 cm
78/7.
Dream, 1978,
acrylic on canvas,
90 x 120 cm

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05/15. Virgo, 2005,
04/65.
acrylic on canvas,
100 x 80 cm
The Amazon II, 2004,
acrylic on canvas,
100 x 80 cm

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07/38.
The earth III, 2007,
acrylic on canvas,
70 x 80 cm
What is the meaning of my work? What is painting?
It was this question that I asked myself at the very beginning of my
professional journey. During studies for my graduation thesis my
concepts brightened.
In 1974 I moved to my father’s old studio in Kamnik, in order to
work on my graduation thesis, and stayed there for a year. I studied
aesthetic theories, existentialists, Marcuse, Freud, Jung and in the end
produced The problem of realism in painting. During that year I evolved
a theoretical background that essentially still defines my relation to
painting.
In my opinion painting is the expression of impressions and thoughtsthinking
expressed through forms that constitute a specific visual
language. It is a self-dependant medium, not transferable into other
means of expression, conditioned exclusively by our biophysiological
structure.
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Basically painting belongs to philosophy; re-creating the world by
thinking through image and metaphor.
Of major importance in the perception process is the primary
impression; an imprint, an archetype from which categories that
connect a phenomenon with a symbol are structured. The symbols
constitute our mind; the thought.
The Artist’s ambition is to invent a form that the collective mind
accepts as a myth. A category that represents a foundation element for
collective thinking; Mythology. It has always been one of the historical
missions of painting to reinterpret myths, to verify whether the
archetype still functions within the innovation of modern thinking.
Whether it still tells us about us.

muses
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89/7.
Diana rouge, 1989,
oil on canvas,
90 x 65 cm

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80/1

82/6.
The witch, 1982,
oil on canvas,
73 x 79 cm
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84/7.
Michelle, 1984,
oil on canvas,
70 x 50 cm

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89/6.
Annette, 1989,
oil on canvas,
80 x 80 cm

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96/20.
Girl under sunshade, 1996,
oil on canvas,
65 x 45 cm

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05/27.
Ceres, 2005,
oil on canvas,
70 x 50 cm

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01/13.
Sibyll, 2001,
oil on canvas,
75 x 80 cm

06/42.
Fortune teller, 2006,
oil on canvas,
80 x 80 cm
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11/32.
Girl with red hair, 2011,
oil on canvas,
80 x 80 cm

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08/56.
Dragon girl, 2011,
oil on canvas,
80 x 80 cm
Picture is feminine.
Figurative painting demands exercise, so I have always worked
with models.
Barbara, Anette, Lea, Adriana.
It happens, on some occasions, that painting turns into enchantment.
When emotional tension is high enough, a portrait comes out by itself.
You can make no mistake.
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...Azra, Marisa, Yolande, Morena, Mojca, Jadranka, Klarisa...Morena.
In Grožnjan, at the end of the Eighties, we were already a settled group
of young artists and we were ready to take part in the world. Painter and
art critic Franco Migliaccio, one of the founders of the Alchimia group,
got in touch with us. He arranged an invitation for us to participate at
a local festival in Trezzano sul Naviglio on the outskirts of Milan.
One evening in June 1991, my neighbour Karlo Pavlinc and I loaded his
car with paintings and ceramics, to be ready to leave early the next
morning.
It was still dark when the telephone woke me up. It was my father calling
from Ljubljana. He told me the army had just sealed off the frontier.

city
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79/2.
The city of women, 1979,
acryli on canvas,
100 x 120 cm

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50
98/48.
Games, 1998,
acrylic on canvas,
74 x 80 cm
02/46.
Munich windows, 2002,
acrylic on canvas,
50 x 60 cm

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78/10.
Cosmic blues, 1978,
acrylic on canvas,
100 x 120 cm

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79/53.
Entertainments, 1979,
acrylic on canvas,
120 x 90 cm

inferno
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90/1.
Crucifix 2000, 1990,
acrylic on canvas,
107 x 100 cm

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90/9.
The tower of Babel, 1990,
acrylic on canvas,
81 x 92 cm
83/1.
Hard times, 1983,
acrylic on canvas,
120 x 90 cm

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91/28.
The Empire, 1991,
acrylic on canvas,
73 x 92 cm

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87/14.
Explosion, 1987,
acrylic on canvas,
74 x 80 cm

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86/12.
The town, 1986,
acrylic on canvas,
100 x 110 cm
80/11.

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86/5.
Marine blue, 1986,
acrylic on canvas,
100 x 62 cm

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the seas
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08/79.
Mariner’s love, 2008,
acrylic on canvas,
70 x 100 cm

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07/30.
Breeze in paradise, 2007,
acrylic on canvas,
40 x 60 cm
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03/3.
Incoronate, 2003,
acrylic on canvas,
35 x 60 cm

99/34.
Beach II, 1999,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 100 cm
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genesis
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11/10.
Existum, 2011,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 80 x 80 cm

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03/39.
Deus mater, 2003,
acrylic on canvas,
90 x 90 x 90 cm
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03/40.
Genius, 2003,
acrylic on canvas,
160 x 160 x 160 cm

10/19.
10/32.
10/26
Shadow, 2010,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 80 x 80 cm
Flags, 2010,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 80 x 80 cm
Vodu, 2010,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 80 x 80 cm
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10/27.
10/25.
10/18.
Red Star, 2010,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 80 x 80 cm
Meditatio, 2011,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 80 x 80 cm
Old man of the mountain, 2010,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 80 x 80 cm

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the picture
of architecture
08/20.
San Giorgio, 2008,
acrylic on canvas,
70 x 70 cm

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05/20. 80/11. Aquarium Umag entrance, 2005,
ceramic,
300 x 400 cm
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08/78.
Amazon, 2008,
Mužolini donji/Buje
ceramic relief,
200 x 100 cm
13/22.
Spring, 2013,
ceramic relief in Baredine/Buje,
80/11.
210 x 210 cm

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07/78.
Riva building Umag, 2007,
ceramic relief with stone
applications by Marko
Zelenko, 250 x 800 cm
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memories
from a
dream
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08/35.
Italian dream, 2008,
acrylic on canvas,
75 x 100 cm

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08/52.
Beauty, 2008,
acrylic on canvas,
50 x 60 cm
08/53.
Freedom, 2008,
acrylic on canvas,
60 x 50 cm
08/67.
Altea, 2008,
acrylic on canvas,
50 x 70 cm

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80/11. 10/7.
Forbidden city, 2010,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 55 cm
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80/11.
08/54.
Noche, 2008,
acrylic on canvas,
50 x 70 cm

paris
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12/8.
Marais, 2012,
acrylic on canvas,
70 x 45 cm

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12/9.
Montmartre, 2012,
acrylic on canvas,
45 x 50 cm
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12/7.
Beaubourg, 2012,
acrylic on canvas,
45 x 45 cm
12/15.
Porte Saint Denis, 2012,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 65

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12/11.
Saint-Paul, 2012,
acrylic on canvas,
70 x 30 cm
13/14.
L’hotel, 2013,
acrylic on canvas,
45 x 70 cm

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12/17.
Hungry, 2012,
acrylic on canvas,
60 x 70 cm
Last year I was granted two months of residency in Paris.
Notre Dame bells have just fallen silent. Now will start those from
Saint Paul. I’m sitting in a Slovene studio in the Cité des Arts in front of
the Ile Saint Louis.
I have just finished these notes for my biography.
It’s getting dark.
I was scheduled to come a year earlier, but I had to postpone my
residency. My mother had become so weak that she had to go to a
senior’s home. Then Marko announced that his girlfriend was pregnant.
Birth and death came together in the space of just 17 days.
We got a granddaughter.
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Today is Tuesday 22th November.
It’s 22:19. The sky is pink.
Paris.
So charming, so terrifying.

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