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Anja Jerčič Jakob / Illustrations
Sales exhibition
UGM Šop, Strossmayerjeva ulica 6
10 February - 8 May 2022
Opening: Thursday, 10 February 2022, 18:00

curator: Brigita Strnad

Painter and teacher Anja Jerčič Jakob exhibits a further important component of her work—illustration—at the UGM Šop. She primarily presents illustrations for children's books, which she has published in the children's magazine Galeb. Since 2016 she has also produced four picture books in which she complements the poems of Jure Jakob. Illustration is not Anja's principal field of work, and since she is not in the illustrator's routine, here she has more opportunity to experiment and explore different techniques and expressions. Each picture book has its own visual language that speaks in unison with the words of a distinct pictorial language.

Vranja potovanja (The Crows Travels), the most resent picture book was released in 2021. Crows travelling by bicycles, boats, balloons and just observing noisy cars or a monstrous worm—a bus—from afar, evoked the idea of a black and white rendition employing the ink wash painting technique. This technique challenges the artist, as the completed image is only revealed to her at the final production stage, when the painting is washed with water. Before that, she uses inventive and intentional foresight to create a relationship between the coloured paper support and the picturesque brushstrokes and lines of the various drawing pens. Above all, the resulting illustrations do not provide instant answers. They provide a wealth of visual stimuli and opportunities to hone aesthetic sensitivity. (Young) viewers/readers are encouraged to explore, compare, question, and wonder about the abstracted images, rhythms, compositions, and colours. Finally, from Anja's paintings and Jure's poems, everyone can make up their own story.

The exhibition features original illustrations as well as high-quality giclée prints.

Anja Jerčič Jakob (Slovenj Gradec, 1975) graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 2000 under Prof. Emerik Bernard. She received her master's degree in graphic arts from the same university in 2004 (mentor Prof. Branko Suhy), and earned a master's degree in painting from the same academy in 2007 (mentor Prof. Metka Krašovec). She has been exhibiting continuously in numerous group and solo exhibitions since 2000. Her artistic work is based on the elemental nature of the two-dimensional painting. The questioning and updating of numerous visualisation models that have originated and grown throughout the history of painting is a recurring theme in her broad output. Occasionally she also does book illustration, primarily for children, which she creates in an experimental manner, exploring the possibilities of a visual language that is always tied to her primary field—painting. She has been an assistant professor in the department of painting at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Education since 2016. She enhances the applied side of art by examining the possibilities of cross-curricular integration of art with other subject areas through her educational, mentoring, and project work.

Price:
Original illustrations: size A3: 160−200 €
Giclée prints: size A3: 50 €; size A4: 35 €