The drawings and graphic works of Helena Tahir could be described as intuitive, as the artist considers the initial thoughts of the creative process merely as a necessary direction, while she develops the content through the creative process itself, or through the process of creating drafts. In this particular gallery set-up, the artist presents her most recent works from the series V vrtincu (In the Whirl), Poetika otroštva (Poetics of Childhood), and Jesenice, in which she deals with landmark life events that crucially affect one's understanding of self and the world around us. “In such moments, we begin to re-question our perception and realize that the reality is more complex than it appears. This perception is built on the basis of our own interpretations, experience, thoughts, emotional states, expectations, and language. This is how my figural art is created, which is then set up in a fantasy composition with floating objects that often have no clear connection between them,” says the artist. The works, rich in iconography and imbued with meaning, clearly express the artist's love for the creative process itself and the exploration of traditional techniques, as well as her extraordinary technical perfection.

Helena Tahir (1992) works in the fields of painting, drawing, photography and graphic art. For the latter, she received this year’s May Salon Award (ZDSLU) for Best Young Graphic Artist. She is a postgraduate student of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana, where she graduated with distinction in painting and graphic arts in 2015. In recent years, she was an exchange student at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Porto, Portugal, and at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, Germany. She has participated in several solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad, including: Osvetlitve, Janez Boljka Gallery, Transformation of Image, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, SlovenIndia, National Gallery of Modern Art New Delhi, Zum Zoom Zoum, GapGap Gallery, Leipzig, Papirologija Equrna VI. Gallery, Ljubljana, Art Critics Select, Cankarjev dom Ljubljana, In the Whirl Božidar Jakac Gallery, Kostanjevica na Krki, ART FOR SALE, Art Gallery Maribor, Nekje končati, nekje začeti, Ravnikar Gallery Space, Ljubljana, Poetics of Childhood, solo exhibition, Ravnikar Gallery Space, Ljubljana, and Somewhere Near, solo exhibition, International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana.

Image: Print (5) from the series Poetics of Childhood, linocut and handmade print on felt. Photo: Jaka Babnik, MGLC archive.

Support: Municipality of Maribor
The exhibition is part of the Risk Change (2016—2020) project co-financed by the Creative Europe program of the European Union and the Ministryz of Public Administration of RS.