Jože Slak – Đoka:
We Met Once
23. 08. — 14. 09. 2019
On the occasion of his exhibition Kmetske slike (Peasant Paintings) in Kibla in 2012, Jože Slak – Đoka said: "My paintings wish to convey the cerebral veils that cloud our views, prevent understanding and communication between diversities and cause dissociation, the decay of the social organism. We have turned into a blind society, a consequence of an utter misunderstanding of the essential role of culture in the life of the social organism. Culture is the skin holding together the flesh, bones and guts of the society."
Playing with forms, shaping materials; the dance of colors, the melody of forms, the intertwinement of abstract and realistic motifs – Jože Slak Đoka composed all of these in harmonies of sensuality, perception, tension, and rumbling social commitment. He played percussion instruments. And he wrote. And, above all, he painted, carved, brought to his visual expression various materials, tested new techniques, and was always, in everything that he did, a highly creative. Integration-disintegration, and the transformation of organic into inorganic, into a work of art, which sits and reaches into the space, filling it with its energy, its spirit, and its heart.
For his work, he has received the Zlata ptica (Golden Bird Award, 1981), the Župančič Award (1993) and the Prešeren Foundation Award (2007).
