Critique

BIOGRAPHY OF SEBASTJAN PERSOLJA

Born on the 23rd October 1972 in Nova Gorica is Sebastjan Peršolja, a young and ambitious Slovenian sculptor and artist, with great prospects and artistic as well as intellectual potential. It is a fact that he is a polyvalent artist, elegant and refined, who deals with painting, graphics, sculpting using various materials (clay, glass, bronze, stone), but what should also be emphasized, for history and for the chronicle, is that his very first solo exhibition of great expressive and artistic value, was exposed when he was only 13 years old and since then he has successfull presented himself in over one hundred solo exhibitions.  Passion, love and creative energy dominate his opus and are the engines that have stimulated him and stimulate him to this day, inspiring and guiding him to put together his enormous talent and his infinite imagination, because together with his qualities he commits himself courageously to invest all of himself in the most language most congenial to him, transforming in beautiful creatures the marvellous marble sculptures. Sebastjan is an artist that has undergone the charm and beauty of surrealism as represented by the illustrious masters such as Giacometti, Brancusi and Archipenko while also aiming, with his class, beyond the lesson and heritage of the grand masters. Sebastjan is an artist who in each of his creative projects, applies with great care a sort of formal investigation, a race with himself, questioning matter, with accuracy and a giant pathos, applied with wisdom in his report of form and space, because of the researcher and scholar that he is, enlightened, in love and fascinated with the materials he uses and with his infinite creative possibilities. The young Slovenian artist matured a lot throughout the years and became a delicate and sensible interpreter, especially when it relates and deals with the human figure, nature and the ambient. His is an enthusiastic and magic research, which he conducts to explore the very essence of Art and Life, not only from a point of view that is human, artistic, social, but in particular following the spiritual aspect. For Sebastjan Peršolja, who, by nature, is always in an inner pursuit of self, when he is designing it develops a conscience with a wisdom and intense depth – the voice of the intimacy, or better yet, he gives life to the meaning of life, following the voice of the soul. On the other account the artist, in his expressive forms shows, that he is an artist in a continuous search of inspiration and motivation to create art that is original, innovative, and in step with the fast moving times imposed by a global world which demands and in many aspects imposes a radical and epochal turn, and is therefore well connected to European and international history and culture. What is certain is that the art of this Slovenian artist, ranges, always in three hundred and sixty degrees, enhancing and highlighting his innate qualities, putting in place, with sagacity his experience, credibility and visibility, characterized by his incurable and respectable human wealth. In particular, Peršolja, with his personality and charisma, has searched and is searching, with his talented initiatives, to valorise and make his dreams become true and tangible, making them genially, pure reality, wisely using the elements that express changes and strong, intense and profound emotions. What surprises and amazes is the simple and strong image, never banal and predictable, that willing or not, haphazardly emerges to reality with expressiveness and taste, because this “High” Art is complex, articulated and above all poetic all at the same time, and therefore suggestive and bewitching, as set and characterized by the continuous and exhausting search for excellence. In fact, Sebastjan Peršolja, masterfully realizes a superlative Art and above all gives life to a dreamy and extremely elegant sculpt, but which is still incisive and strictly personal and magnetic. Among the many experiences made over many years of work, research and experimentation, it should be emphasized, in particular, that to Sebastjan belonged, the joy, pleasure and the honour of having devised and formed the “Throne of Miss Yugoslavia” and the conception of the coveted and precious “Oscar” of beauty, created with an elegance and astonishing beauty, for the prestigious competition of Miss World. These aesthetic, scenic and choreographic achievements stand out brightly, like true gems of the heavens, embellished in gold. Such works, composed of feminine depictions, which, for the title of “MISS WORLD” were raising out towards the sky the “Globe”, that is our planet surmounted with a crown, and designed creatures dedicated and donated to illustrious and famous personalities, in primis the opera singer and Maestro, Luciano Pavarotti. In his opus, Sebastjan, presents overpowering and staunch an image of a first-class artist, with exceptional skills, qualities and potential. But his story becomes mythical with the most important presence of his brilliant and qualifying career, taking part in the 57th Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, where he exposed his breath-taking marble sculpture, “La Sirena sulla Laguna”, shown off in the enchanting scenography of the gothic palazzo Zenobio, in the seat of the Armenian Republic. That presence was so special and extraordinary, shown next to the illustrious, famous and well-known “Maestro” and recognized International Artist, Miro Peršolja, his father. It was a global exhibition, and his resounding success was artistic, personal and professional. It goes without saying that his sculpture and his pictorial works represent and express, explicitly, an incredible emotional and experiential path, where all the strength and expressiveness of the artist appear, who puts soul, imagination and creativity into every one of his work, and it should be noted that he uses his hands cleverly and magically, searching, in every way, to establish a dialogue, a constructive, intimate, profound and visionary correspondence, between his “other self” and the unpredictable and passionate viewer, who, Sebastjan Peršolja, acutely renders protagonist and absolute interpreter of the scene. In conclusion, the Art of Peršolja has always been a timeless dream that overwhelms his opus and Life itself, which now and forever will live, symbolically, for the future of Art itself.

Angelo Bacci: Architecture Graduate, Employed for over forty years at the Venice Biennale, Passionate Aficionado and Historian of Contemporary Art, Writer and Poet!

SEBASTJAN PERŠOLJA; ELEGANCE IN THE FORM

Sebastjan Peršolja is a Slovene artist with a rich knowledge of the arts and a well defined artistic curriculum.

He is a painter and a sculptor, he studied at the Max Fabiani Institute in Gorizia (Italy) and at the High School of Photography and Design in Ljubljana (Slovenia). He has undertaken his artistic activity with prestigious exhibitions all over Slovenia as well as other European countries.

He had the honour of designing the throne for Miss Yugoslavia and the sceptre of beauty for Miss World: a composition in solid gold with six feminine figures holding up a terrestrial globe surmonted with a crown, and many paintings for illustrious figures like Luciano Pavarotti and Vittorio Sgarbi.

An artist full of passion and enthusiasm, continuously looking for ideas and motivations for an Art that is young and modern, deeply engaged in the European cultural history. The human figure constitutes the main theme in His artistic expression.

Peršolja’s imagery is never banal or gratuitous, instead it is rather elaborate and complex, sectioned with details, interpreted with abstract geometric execution through a Picassoesque derivation. Thus his works are never easy to describe, the lack of aesthetical complacency makes it hard to define obvious figurative influences.

Everything is suggested and implied, everything is suspended, available for a personal interpretation: a jigsaw of forms and colours, intercut with lights and shadows, elegant and delicate chromes, where the female anatomy remains the undisputed protagonist.

In His paintings, that sometimes seem overrun with extraordinary Futuristic visions, two fundamental and bearing elements emerge: the »sign«, meant as a gesture – writing and the colour. The first one is strong and decisive, free and personal; the second one is delicate and  poetically melts in a compact unit.

Even when Sebastjan Peršolja uses stronger dyes, He does so with such extraordinary aesthetical taste that the overall harmony in the composition remains intact.

His paintings are at times rich with extruding matter, textured with the use of materials like glass, resins, paste and plaster. In other instances more free and slight, almost suspended in space, but always coherent and personal.

Sebastjan Peršolja is also a sculptor. Sculpture it is in His blood, part of His DNA. Marble, bronze and stone are His favourite materials for a well defined and mature artistic expression.

The sculptures are elegant, incisive, strongly personal. Their complexity invites us to a deeper interest and study.”

Prof. Luciano Carini
Art critic

“The paintings of Sebastjan Peršolja are distinguished by a daring combining of colours, which makes them appear like animated objects.
Peršolja’s skilled touch supplies an electric liveliness to all of his compositions, that readily catch the eye of the beholder.
Although he operates with abstractions, his forms are extremely suggestive
and offer a different emotion and interpretation at every new contemplation.
In the words of the artist himself: »Every day, when I create, I connect with the Cosmic energy, the Universe and in a meditative state translate forms from other planets and their messages on the canvas.«”

Len Černe
Dipl. of digital arts

 

”In art, ont only do we love, but we also belive in surprises.
Artist in their artistic zeal are able to constantly achieve.
By this we mean mostly all of their artistic work, that will never cease to be interesting.
When meeting the young artist Sebastjan Peršolja, we encounter another surprise, the one testified by his youth.
The seriousness and level oh his artistic creations as well as the seemingly effortless way he brings his creative thoughts to life,
reveals the maturity and disclipine of the young artist.
It’s a young artist entering our creative world like a meteor. A similar entry on Slovenian grounds has been seen by only two other artists: Janez Bernik and the late Bard Iucundus.”
Prof. dr. Mirko Juteršek
Art critic

 

”Peršolja’s artisic vision is a unique intertwining of forms, taken over from the animal and plant world, but at the same time he is also interested in the human form in various poses.
However the listed motifs are not adressed in the same manner as the classic European concept of searching for the beauty on the outisde, but as a misterious, emphasized fantastic world,
which cannot hide it’s connection with some of the artistic solutions used in prehistorical or archaic greek culture.
The search for the primal, anatomically unburduned form, this seems to be the in core of the artistic search of Sebastjan Peršolja.”
Marko Vuk
Art critic

 

”The exhibition held in Grand Casino Portorož presents to the audience Peršolja’s newest artistic cycle.
The paintings continue the author’s original style and the form opens up in a sense of an abstract artistic field.
When forming the image the line and coloration are especially important. The artist is expressing himself very fiercly into the artistic foundation
and his line formation combined with a rich artistic support forms some sort of semi-figural, volumnious forms.
We could say that the paintings contain the premonition of the artist’s sculpture.
In it’s contect are therefore naratives, stories which happen betwen the protagonists, which the author defines and fills with a life of their own.”
Dejan Mehmedovič
Art critic