Opening of the Exhibition: Folk Artist Lovrenc Erzar from Nasovče near Komenda

The Municipality of Komenda and the Intermunicipal Museum Kamnik

cordially invite you to the opening of the exhibition

Folk Artist Lovrenc Erzar from Nasovče near Komenda

Featuring works from the collections of the Intermunicipal Museum Kamnik and the Slovene Ethnographic Museum

Wednesday, 21 October 2026, at 10:30 a.m.

at the exhibition venue along the Juhant Trail in Komenda.

Lovrenc Erzar was born on 29 July 1835 in Nasovče near Komenda. From an early age, he was fascinated by Baroque art, particularly woodcarving. Using ordinary knives and a small penknife, he carved figures of Christ, the Virgin Mary, saints and angels, as well as decorative elements for farmhouses throughout the wider surrounding area.

He became best known for his small household altars, which were an important part of popular religious devotion on Slovenian farms. He crafted altars measuring between 25 and 100 centimetres from limewood and spruce, painted them with oil paints and gold bronze paint, and adorned them with carved columns and pilasters. His work is distinguished by a characteristic “zigzag” or notched carving technique, which created a striking interplay of light and shadow. His most frequent motifs included the rosary, the Holy Family, and scenes from the lives of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

Only a few details of his life have been preserved. He died on 6 July 1903. He is remembered primarily for his household altars, in which his imagination and woodcarving talent reached one of the pinnacles of folk religious sculpture in the Gorenjska region of Slovenia.

You are warmly invited to attend.