Maruša Šuštar In 2006, I graduated in painting under Prof. Zmago Jeraj at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where I also completed my master's degree in painting in 2016 under Prof. Gustav Gnamuš and Assoc. Prof. Marjan Gumilar. Since 2009, I have held several solo exhibitions in Slovenia, Austria, and Croatia. I have also participated in a number of survey exhibitions of contemporary Slovenian art, notably We Want to Be Free, Like Our Fathers Were at the International Centre of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana (2010); Contemporary Slovenian Painting at Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana and the City Gallery of Piran (2014); The Magic of Art – Protagonists of Slovenian Contemporary Art 1968–2013 in Villa Manin in Passariano (2014), Vienna (2015), and Zagreb (2015); and the exhibition View 8 – A Look at Slovenian Painting at Home and Abroad (2016). Especially noteworthy is the survey exhibition of recent Slovenian painting A Time Without Innocence at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana. I received the ESSL Art Award CEE 2009 – Special Invitation by Vienna Insurance Group, and in 2014 the first prize of ART MUSE for a painting. As a freelance artist, I live and work in Srednja vas in Bohinj.
REVIEWS
JIRI KOČICA, introductory text for the exhibition "Escape Lines" at the Chemical Institute in Ljubljana, 2017
Maruša Šuštar earned her master’s degree in painting under Prof. Gustav Gnamuš at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. In her painting, she explores contemporary themes emerging in today's world through the presence of media, the internet, new technologies, and lifestyles across various global environments. Her works hint at issues such as the refugee crisis, brain drain, surveillance, geopolitical shifts, and cultural identity. At the same time, these topics are continually placed in the context of the so-called “eternal questions” that humanity has grappled with since ancient times and which follow us through all spaces and eras (who we are, where we are going, why we are here, what the meaning of our existence is, etc.).
Thus, Maruša Šuštar’s paintings reveal and illuminate the way post/modern communication unfolds in contemporary society. It is as if the artist applies layers to a completely abstract, mathematically precise matrix – a structure we use daily via global positioning systems, media channels, internet networks, and other frameworks – allowing us a glimpse into strata of ancient, forgotten, and newly awakened cults, lands, and cultural remnants. This application illustrates a core human inability to transform, despite our technological advances, into a robotic, precise mental machine where errors are minimized and everything is rationally interconnected... without emotional knots and unresolved bonds on the level of self-questioning, let alone interpersonal entanglements. Amid this terrifyingly precise network of technological determinism, we sense illogical, random, and sometimes entirely nonsensical human transitions and signs. We observe an unfulfilled longing for connection with the earth’s layers, with whispers of wind in forgotten corners of the world, and through figures, we perceive our searches, wanderings, and disorientation within the web of countless possibilities and layers – our attachment to some atavistic, never-resolved fate.
While painting has often turned to nature and the beauty of landscapes to escape the burdens of social upheaval – to emphasize the permanence of natural principles or to seek an idealized world – Maruša Šuštar’s landscapes reflect a dramatic tension that could signify a tragic fate for all the characters in her paintings... including us, the viewers, observing it all from a distant vantage point, like a satellite above the planet.
Her refined aesthetic, through which these dramatic contents unfold, creates particular tension in the viewer. This is not the aesthetic coding we’re accustomed to from contemporary artists. Instead, we constantly feel a deep, content-driven connection reaching far back beyond modernism and its proto-modern beginnings, almost to cave painting – while simultaneously guiding us, like Aldous Huxley or Michel Houellebecq, through this ancient world of myth and storytelling into visions of post-catastrophe, alienation, paranoia, and the surveillance of the future.
And the more Maruša Šuštar distances us through her imagery, the closer she brings us to something we are reluctant to think of ... More reviews by art critics ➔
BIOGRAPHY
Maruša Šuštar was born on April 6, 1977, in Kranj. In 2006, she graduated in painting under Professor Zmago Jeraj at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. She continued her postgraduate studies in painting at the same institution under Professor Gustav Gnamuš, successfully completing her master's degree in 2016 under Professor Marjan Gumilar. Since 2010, she has held the status of an independent cultural worker. She lives and works in Srednja vas in Bohinj.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
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2023Maruša Šuštar and Anja Jerčič Jakob, Maribor Art Walk, walks through contemporary art spaces, Hest Gallery, Maribor
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2022Man, where are you?, Generali Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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2020Maruša Šuštar, Krka Gallery, Novo mesto, Slovenia
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2020Maruša Šuštar, Surveillance, Hest Gallery, Ljubljana
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2018Deep Above Us, Paintings 2007–2015, Bežigrad Gallery II, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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2018Above, Pogled Gallery, Kamnik, Slovenia
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2017Escape Lines, Chemical Institute, Ljubljana
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2015Britta Keber – Cristina Fiorenza – Maruša Šuštar, Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt, Austria
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2014Paintings, Domžale Gallery
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2013The Price of Life, installation in the Škrlovec Tower, Kranj
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2013Earth, You Who Devour Me, Grohar Gallery, Škofja Loka
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2012Panopticon, Simulaker Gallery, Novo mesto
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2011Planetarium, Equrna Gallery, Ljubljana
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2010Critics Choose, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana
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2009Surveyors, Earth-Knowers, Hest Gallery, Ljubljana
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2009Paintings, Zlatni Ajngel Gallery, Varaždin, Croatia
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2009Paths of the Soul, Minoriten Gallery, Wolfsberg, Austria
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2009Beyond-Sight, Bežigrad Gallery, Ljubljana
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2008Paintings, Elektra Gallery, Kranj
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
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2025Ash Wednesday of Art, Gallery II and Gothic Church of St. Andraž in Labotska Valley, Austria
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202510th Alpe-Adria Anniversary Art Symposium, Škocjan near Lake Klopein, Austria
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2023FIGURALIKA. Selected Examples from Slovenian Art, Cukrarna, Ljubljana
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2022MOMENTAL-MENTE: Living Paintings, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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2021Reunion/Wieder sehen, Container 25, St. Michael, Austria
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2021Painting Now!, Slovenia 21, Monfort Salt Warehouse, Portorož, Slovenia
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2019Contemporary Slovenian Painting, Pilon Gallery, Ajdovščina
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20192 Generations: Painting and Poetry, Nova Gorica
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2019A Time Without Innocence, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana
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2018Personal, KIBLA PORTAL Gallery, Maribor
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2018Alpe Adria Artists, St. Georgen Abbey, Austria
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2017Much is Beautiful, Art Stays, Ptuj
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2017Spring Feelings, Stadtmacher, Wolfsberg
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2017Slovenia Open to Art, Radovljica
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20165th International Festival of Fine Arts
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2016View 8, Kostanjevica na Krki
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2015The Magic of Art, Künstlerhaus Vienna
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2015Painting Now, England
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2014South Pole 9.0, Eisenkappel
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2014Magic of Art, Italy
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2014Contemporary Slovenian Painting, Piran
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2014Contemporary Slovenian Painting, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana
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20132x19-a, Media Nox, Maribor
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2013Propsthof Gallery, St. Andrä
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2013Hotel Obir Reception, Eisenkappel
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201216th Slovenian Sculpture Exhibition, Ljubljana
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20128th International Painting Academy Arboretum, Ljubljana
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2011Ivan, Give Me the Rešpetlin, Škofja Loka
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2011Trans.form11, Klagenfurt
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2011Paintings from the Exhibition, Ljubljana
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2010We Want to Be Free, MGLC, Ljubljana
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2010Encounters, Villach
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2010ART Karlsruhe, Germany
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2010Young Art from CEE, Vienna
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2008Art Exhibition, St. Georgen
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2009ESSL Award CEE, Vienna
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2007AlpeAdriArt, Wolfsberg
AWARDS
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2014ART MUZE – First Prize for a Painting
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2004Purchase Award, Municipality of Žetale
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2009ESSL Award CEE 2009, Special Invitation by Vienna Insurance Group