Exhibition of the Awarded Artists of the 32nd Youth Salon:
FRAN MAKEK AND MAK MELCHER
November 10 – December 11, 2016
PM Gallery

The exhibition opening will be held on Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 19:00 h

The exhibition of the awarded artists of the 32nd Youth Salon: Fran Makek and Mak Melcher, will be held as part of the 33rd Youth Salon at the Extended Media (PM) Gallery.

Just to remind you, Mitar Matić, an academic painter who won the Grand Prix of the 32nd Youth Salon, was awarded with a two-month residency in Paris, whereas Fran Makek and Mak Melcher were awarded with two equal second prizes.

At the exhibition of the awarded authors, Fran Makek exhibits a corner sofa using billboard technique on the PM Gallery wall. The artist says that this motif has featured repeatedly in his work, with no apparent reason. It appeared in his early sketches of interior, created while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, as well as in the drawing Ležaj figuri potjeranoj iz bračnog kreveta [Bed of Figures Banned From Marital Bed], and in a series of Christmas cards from 2013.
By using a curved wall surface as a kind of counterpoint, the artist wants to emphasize the beauty, monumental simplicity and amazing functionality of the corner.

“All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer seeing (one might say) to everything else.“

Aristotel

Mak Melcher exhibits a monumental sculpture. By bringing clay directly from a clay pit to the Gallery, the artist changes the location and context of this noble material. He throws the clay on a pre-constructed and installed wooden construction and shapes it in situ; during these four days the artist transforms the Gallery into his studio.

Mak Melcher sees the duration of the exhibition as the lifespan of his work, that is, its lifecycle – the work is born, it lives and dies during the exhibition; after the exhibition ends it will be destroyed and returned to its original context.

For the artist, the exhibition is a kind of process and experiment and he is not sure how it is going to develop, let alone end, but respecting the natural fundamentals of the material, after shaping the clay he completely leaves the dynamics of changes and transformations to the work.

“The process of drying changes the colour, shape, composition of the work; new relationships are formed. The work literally lives! However, this life does not last long, at least not in terms of our human perception of time. It lasts until the clay dries, cracks, maybe falls off, breaks on the floor.“

GALLERIES OPENING HOURS
Wednesday to Friday: 11.00 AM – 7.00 PM
Saturday and Sunday: 10.00 AM – 18.00 PM
Closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and holidays

* EXCEPTION: The Youth Salon will be closed for visitors on Thursday, Dec 1 and Friday, Dec 2, and will stay open on Monday, Nov 28 and Tuesday, Nov 29.

TICKETS:
20 kn citizens
10 kn students and retirees
10 kn groups (over 5 persons, fare per person)
10 kn for regular members of: ULUPUH, HDD, UHA, ORIS, HULU Split, HDLU Osijek, HDLU Rijeka, HDLU Dubrovnik, HDLU Istra, HDLU Varaždin, upon presentation of valid documents.
Free for regular members of Croatian Association of Artists, AICA, ICOM, Croatian Society of Art Historians and Croatian Journalists’ Association, as well as the students of the Academy of Fine Arts and Art History at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, upon presentation of valid documents.
Tickets are sold at the Croatian Association of Artists box office, during the opening hours of the exhibition.
For further inquiries regarding the tickets, please contact hdlu@hdlu.hr.