Jur Samec – Urban basins

Urban natural scenography is the guiding principle in the latest cycle of works by the painter Jur Samec, who tries to talk about his own reflections on nature, with which he is trying to establish contact more and more, with Urban basins. At the same time, through a playful figurative language, he also comments and mildly critiques the conflicting duality between what man does in his increasing comfort to the very environment, which he would at the same time want to keep strong and healthy, but of course without any renunciation. As in the previous cycles, Jur Samec is also this time attached to the vertical construction of the painting, building it in vertical bands, where urban and urban elements pushed into the sky grow into the sky – buildings and plants, all turned and branching out into the sky. He creates isolated figures from individual artistic elements, skilfully connects them and assembles them into harmonious compositions until the moment when he achieves balance on the entire artistic surface. The objects are abstracted, flat and colored in a vivid color, which gives the impression of playfulness to the whole, while at the same time, the many details that the artist places on individual works by gluing collaged parts or by painting draw the viewer to a stop and thus to a slightly longer dialogue between them and painted and simultaneously between the picture and the space in which it is placed. Urban basins seem to be mapped onto modern society, which increasingly, but at the same time, secretly lacks freedom, another term for controlled, monitored freedom. Just as we try to tame nature in the urban area according to our own principles and desires and force it to thrive, so that it pleases our senses, man is also unconsciously bound to the same space and to his own desires, how, where and in what way to live and survive.

Jur Samec (1974) graduated on the Professional School of Drawing and Painting under Assoc. Mladen Jernej and M.Sc. of Arts Assoc. dr. Jaka Bonča. During his studies, he received a scholarship for talented people from the Municipality of Ljubljana. In 2004, he received an award from the Professional School of Drawing and Painting for exceptionally high-quality works, and in 2021 also an award for the quality of fine art works at the 10th Kranj International Festival of Fine Arts. He was invited to many art colonies in Slovenia and abroad, and he presented his works at some individual and numerous group art presentations. With the fine artist Aja Vesna Ginovska he collaborates in an artistic tandem JURAJA GINSAM. He lives and creates in Ljubljana, where he has his own studio.