Opening:Friday, June 23, 2023, at 7 p.m.
Loža Gallery Koper, 23. 6.– 22.9. 2023
____________________
The exhibition Marino Cettina Collection of Contemporary Art presents a selection of works from the private collection of the late gallerist and collector from Umag in Croatia. In 1985, on Dante Alighieri street in Umag, Marino Cettina (1959–1998) opened the Cafè-Gallery Dante next to his restaurant. This was the first private gallery in Croatia and one of the first in Eastern Europe. With an ambitious and grand programme the gallery saw instant success. It became a venue for gatherings and internationally resounding cultural and artistic projects: they hosted literary evenings, concerts, and performances; with its bold, always topical, occasionally even visionary exhibitions, the gallery soon drew attention outside the small town, too. Cettina was an honest and sociable person, an excellent host, and a skilful and passionate connoisseur of contemporary art.
The collection includes 47 art works by 34 artists (individuals, tandems, groups) and in its diversity unifies different expressive media: classical and digital photographs, mixed techniques, acrylic paintings, drawings, graphics, sculptures, objects, and installations. In his selection, Cettina, always thrilled about new and avantgarde approaches, focused on engaged artists who dived deep into the current topics of contemporary visual art and society. In the collection, Croatian artists of different generations prevail but are accompanied by recognised Slovenian and great internationally renowned names:
Boris Cvjetanović, Vlasta Delimar, Sandro Đukić, Marijan Jevšovar, Dušan Jurić, Ivana Keser, Ivan Kožarić, Goran Petercol, Dubravka Rakoci, Neli Ružić, Edita Schubert, Sofijasilvia (Silvia Potočki), Mladen Stilinović, Olja Stipanović, Slaven Tolj, Goran Trbuljak, Ksenija Turčić, Ivana Vučić (Croatia); Goran Bertok, Rajko Bizjak, Marina Gržinić & Aina Šmid, IRWIN, Marko Modic (Slovenia); Giancarlo Dell’Antonia, Fabrizio Plessi (Italy); Barbara Holub (Austria); Robert Gober, Zoe Leonard, Bruce Nauman, Jack Pierson, Andres Serrano (USA); Masaki Hirano (Japan); Alexander Brener, Vadim Fishkin (Russia).
