Alojz Konec (1956, Brežice) continued his education at the secondary school in Brežice in the class of Professor Miroslav Kugler after completing his primary school studies in Sevnica, where he was taught by art teacher Aleš Fenos. In 1983, he graduated in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where his professors were Kiar Meško, Marko Šuštaršič, Janez Bernik, Jože Ciuha and Štefan Planinc. He went on to spend several years designing children's ready-to-wear clothing. In 1987, he became an art teacher at a secondary school. Alongside his pedagogical work, he continued to work as a studio artist until his retirement in 2020. At this point, the roles reversed and today he teaches alongside painting. In the first decade of his art career, he was an active conceptual artist but later shifted his focus to colouristic painting and colour research. Since 1974, he has been exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad. To date, he has held 68 solo and 408 group exhibitions and has received several international awards. He is a member and the current president of the Dolenjska, Bela krajina and Posavje Fine Artists Society, a member of the Slovenian Association of Fine Art Societies, a member of the International Watercolor Society IWS Slovenia and an honorary member of the Brežice Artists' Association. His practice includes oil and watercolour painting, printmaking, pedagogy as well as writing professional art and didactic texts. He lives and works in Sevnica.
Painter Alojz Konec embarked on his original art project conceived especially for Krško Gallery in 2022, making this his 69th solo exhibition. He was called to this project through his past exhibitions and reflections.[1]
In his works, Konec draws on his extensive knowledge of art history and art theory to create rounded cycles in which he explores a particular theme and translates it into the expressive language of visual art. His artistic path has led him from conceptualism, in which the most important message of the artwork is its idea, concept. He uses it to address the viewer, to accept or reject the artist's idea, the formal and visual expression is of secondary importance. Through his work in the manner of colour realism, a style grounded in reality that blends colour harmony with poetic expression, the artist has evolved toward colour abstraction, which is the central focus of this project.
The site-specific project entitled Everyman serves as an ode to colour, or a missa colorum, and, through its exploration of colour, it alludes to the metaphysics of its essence and embodiment. Colour plays a crucial role in the artist's creative practice, as he considers it a 'personal(ly) extruded drawing of colours, carriers of their own multiplicities,'[2] resulting from deep reflection and immersion in colour theory. He found inspiration in the vibrantly coloured plastic flowers he would see in shops, which led him to adopt abstracted floral motifs to paint a series of small, round canvases – tondi.
[1] These exhibitions are Drawings of Colours, 20. 9.‒20. 11. 2024, Novo mesto: Galerija Ulti; Digital Disturbance, 11. 1.‒27. 2. 2024, Ljubljana: Galerija Nove univerze; Obstacles, 22. 6.‒12. 7. 2023, Ljubljana: Galerija ZDSLU; VI.DI, 21. 9.‒9. 10. 2020, Novo mesto: Galerija Kocka.
[2] Konec, A. (2024). Foreword in: Risbe barv, 20. 9.‒20. 11. 2024. Novo mesto: Galerija Ulti.
