Miha Štrukelj’s exhibition is divided into two parts. The first part features the winning drawings from the international Henkel Art.Award. 2008 prize competition. It is a series of drawings on transparent paper, which the author created based on photographs of random passers-by.  Without their knowledge, he captured the specific moments of individuals and used them as a basis for layered artwork on transparent paper. The other part of the exhibition focuses on “site specific work” and takes place directly on the art museum’s premises.

Henkel has been organizing this international competition in 31 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia for many years now. The number of artists, among them many from Slovenia, has increased from year to year. By supporting these young and talented artists, Henkel wishes to contribute to the process of European integration and intercultural understanding.

“At Henkel we are delighted to support young talented artists, because this is not only an opportunity for promoting them abroad, but also represents an opportunity for promoting Slovenia. The winners of the Henkel Art.Award. prize competition receive a financial prize and an opportunity to show their work at an exhibition and thus affirm artistic trends on an international level,” says Melita Ferlež, Managing Director of Henkel Slovenia, explaining the meaning of art competitions like the Henkel Art.Award.

“The perception of sociological, ecological, urban and wider social relations in the modern world and the positioning of man inside these systems, his acceptability and responsiveness, essential and existential insecurity are just some of the issues that Miha Štrukelj deals with”, says museum consultant and curator Sarival Sosič in commenting on the exhibited work. “At first glance, the artist is interested in less important city sights, such as hints, signs and people, which through the drawing process create a specific psychological state of mind, sort of a spiritual map of the city, designed as an estranged, distanced and transparent veil of the fading space.”

Miha Štrukelj was born in Ljubljana in 1973, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design and then continued his studies in painting at the same academy. In the meantime, he also gained further training at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA. In his artistic career he has already won many international awards. The Henkel Art.Award. and the Pollock-Krasner foundation grant are among the most important ones.