Nik Erik Neubauer / White Smoke, Brown Glare
Nik Erik Neubauer / White Smoke, Brown Glare
UGM Kabinet, Strossmayerjeva ulica 6
31 May–26 June 2025
opening: Saturday, 31 May 2025, 11:00
curator: Živa Kleindienst
author of the text: Miha Colner
Nik Erik Neubauer presents his first solo exhibition at the Maribor Art Gallery entitled White Smoke, Brown Glare. The exhibition presents a series of photographs taken during the artist's month-long residency in New York. In his characteristically raw street style, Neubauer captured scenes of everyday life in this iconic, mythicised city - the economic and cultural capital of the world, where profound class and racial divisions, as well as the glamour and squalor of contemporary society, are evident at every turn.
“[…] Photographer Nik Erik Neubauer was fully conscious of these circumstances when he arrived in New York City for his one-month residency. Ever-present was the question of what else is there to photograph in a city whose image has long since become iconic and firmly lodged in cultural memory. He was also aware of the inevitable baggage of awe he felt for the city that has provided a setting for many great success stories. William Klein’s, Helen Levitt’s and Garry Winogrand’s street photographs have been indelibly etched in human history also due to the fact that (many of them) were taken in New York. […] In his photographs, Neubauer captured the less visible side of New York, whose key to survival are a collective mindset and civic activism. He captured the social strata that defy class divisions and political uniformity. He focused on the verism of the given moment, a representation that can diverge completely from dominant discourses. He documented the protest movement calling for an end to the genocide in Palestine in which the US is deeply complicit; the city of former colonists is standing up to oppression on the grounds of nationality or religion. […] Neubauer's photography is defined by social engagement of the kind that can only be achieved through a generous dose of the old-fashioned humanism so characteristic of documentary photography in the second half of the 20th century.”
— excerpt from the text by Miha Colner
Nik Erik Neubauer (1994) is a visual artist and a photographer from Ljubljana. In his work, he deals with the intimate social issues of our everyday life with a contemporary documentary approach. He graduated in photography at VIST - Faculty of Applied Sciences in 2017 and obtained his master’s degree in photography at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in 2021. In 2021, he was nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award and GUP Magazine named him amongst the most promising European photographers. His photobook You Always Cry Twice When You Go to the South was selected for PhotobookWeek in Aarhus. The same year he was awarded a Watchdog award by the Slovenian Association of Journalists for his long-term project of covering anti-government protests in Slovenia. In 2022 he became one of the winners of the Belfast Photo Festival in the photobook section. In 2023 he was nominated for OHO Award, the main national award for young visual artists in Slovenia. His second photobook Where’s the Afters?, published by the National Museum of Contemporary History, was shortlisted at Rencontres d’Arles Book Awards. Since 2024 the book is available also in Printed Matter Inc., NYC.
He has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary and Contemporary History of Slovenia (2023), the Glass Atrium of the Ljubljana City Hall (2023), DobraVaga Gallery (2022) and Fotografija Gallery (2021). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Atelierhaus der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna (AT), Monoprix, Arles (FR), Botanic Gardens, Belfast (UK), Galerie Fotografic, Prague (CZ), Culture Center, Belgrade (SRB). His works are included in the Riko Art Collection and the Art Collection of the Municipality of Slovenske Konjice.
He is a member of the collective Študio and is represented by Galerija Fotografija. He lives in Ljubljana.
The exhibition White Smoke, Brown Glare was first shown in the Small Gallery of Cankarjev dom. The exhibitions in the Small Gallery of Cankarjev dom are sponsored by Loterija Slovenije.
Exhibition text was translated by mag. Anina Oblak (Cankarjev dom).
