Riko Debenjak Gallery

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Galerija Rika Debenjaka

Pionirska 6, SI-5213 Kanal ob Soči

Phone386 (0) 51 636 930

Managed byKanal Ceramics Society

Placed in the small picturesque city of Kanal, Riko Debenjak Gallery was established in 1977 when the eminent Slovene painter and graphic artist Riko Debenjak (1908–1987) donated his prints to his home town Kanal. In collaboration with the Municipality of Kanal the gallery is run by Kanal Ceramics Society with the president Milica Zimic at the head.

Venue

The gallery is situated in a renovated defence tower and three houses that are all connected forming the old city wall. The Kolar's house, the Gothic house and since February 2012 the memorial room of Riko Debenjak was opened in Fišč' house where many Riko Debenjak's artworks, personal belongings and archives are on display. The exhibition space is therefore very branched and consists of three floors measuring approximately 80 m² each.

Programme

During the summer the permanent collection of Riko Debenjak's prints is on display while during the year the gallery hosts about fourteen exhibitions per year, including an exhibition of the Northern Primorska Fine Artists Association, exhibition of art section of the University of the Third Age UNITRI Nova Gorica, an exhibition of Kanal Ceramics Society and an exhibition by pupils of elementary school Kanal. Occasionally the exhibition catalogues and brochures are published by Kanal Ceramics Society who also organise an annual international ex–tempore in collaboration with Centro Culturale Tullio Cralli from Gorizia and local artists from Kanal, Gorizia, Nova Gorica, Goriška Brda, Tržič and Gorizia Hills.

The gallery space is also a venue for the Kogoj’s Days festival and during the Kogoj’s Days 2012 Riko Debenjak's oil paintings will be exhibited.

Exhibitions

Artworks by several well-established artists have been on display in the Riko Debenjak Gallery, for example Franc Golob's retrospective exhibition of watercolour paintings in 1996, Stane Klemenc's retrospective of photography in 1997, Franc Novinc's and Rudi Kogej's paintings in 1998. Janez Bernik presented his work in frame of the Kogoj’s Days in 2004 while Berko's digital prints were presented two years later.

Recent exhibitions

Carefully spread over all gallery spaces Biometric Urbanism by Klemen Brun was on display in 2009. The same year Anton Levstek, Mirsad Begić, Lojze Drašler, Drago Medved and others presented their work in a group exhibition In the Sign of Primož Trubar with a monoplay of Matjaž Kmecl performed by Anton Štern at the opening. In December 2009 the gallery hosted an exhibition The Touch of Art where members of the Inter-municipal association of blind and visually impaired Nova Gorica presented works created during the art workshops led by Damjan Cvek. In 2011 there were exhibitions by Tanja Špenko, Jože Stražar Kiyohara and Urban Golob among others.

Annually the gallery hosts a photographic exhibition on mountaineering as well. In March 2010 there was the 15th–one by Friulian climbers, Nives Meroi and Roman Benet while Davo Karničar presented his photographs from all over the world Life with Mountains in 2012.

Thematic group exhibitions

In 2005 the curator Monika Ivančič Fajfar started to organise exhibitions in collaboration with Kanal Ceramics Society and Bovec Cultural Centre, for example a retrospective exhibition of Ivan Primožič's paintings. Monika Ivančič Fajfar has curated several thematic group exhibitions in the Riko Debenjak Gallery, such as Views of the Soča River Valley – a Different Perspective (2006) where Ana Grobler, Damijan Kracina, Matic Leban and others referred to the local context using different media. A year later, in November 2007, an international exhibition War and Peace: Memories and Monuments was organised on the 90th anniversary of the end of the Battles of the Isonzo. The exhibition included works by Max Aufischer, Darvishi Darvish, Martin Krusche, Branko Lenart, Mladen Miljanović, Guli Silberstein, Tone Svetina and Fran Tratnik and aimed to symbolically link the people who were on different sides during the war or later. In this spirit the exhibition was later on display in Bovec and Gorica as well.

Riko Debenjak Gallery hosted a series of exhibitions It's a Woman's World of Art curated by Monika Ivančič Fajfar in the years from 2007 to 2011. The research and presentation of current production of Slovene female artists who create in the field of traditional art media consisted of four exhibitions. It's a Woman's World of Painting in 2007 was followed by It's a Woman's World of Sculpture in 2009 and It's a Woman's World of Graphics in 2010. The last but not least It's a Woman's World of Photography was organised in 2011. Among 20 artists of younger generation there were Tina Dobrajc, Polona Demšar, Vesna Drnovšek and Vanja Bučan.

See also

• Kanal Ceramics Society
• Kogoj’s Days

External links

• Riko Debenjak on Wikipedija (in Slovenian)
• Opening of the Riko Debenjak memorial room on youtube
• Kanal Ceramics Society web site

It's a woman's world of Art series

• It's a woman's world of Art web site (in Slovene)
• It's a woman's world of graphics
• It's a woman's world of sculpture
• It's a woman's world of photography