Obalne galerije - Coastal Galleries

The Coastal Galleries were founded in 1976 as the central gallery institution of the Primorska region. Since their founding a range of well-received exhibitions prepared by the Coastal Galleries have had a major influence on the visual arts scene, not only in the coastal region but also in the rest of Slovenia. In addition to the parent gallery – Piran City Gallery – the Coastal Galleries also run the Meduza Gallery, Koper, the Loža Gallery, Koper, the Meduza 2 Gallery, Piran, the Pečarič Gallery and – as of recently – the Monfort Contemporary Art Space.

Programme

The exhibition programme of the Coastal Galleries combines review exhibitions of work by representatives of the middle generation of Slovene artists, individual exhibitions of work by young artists, and retrospective exhibitions of work by the leading artists from Primorska and Slovenia. By preparing of mostly group exhibitions, Obalne galerije cooperate with other similar national and international institutions. Additionally, they are very active year-long in various pedagogic activities focused on children and youth, thus leading tours through various art exhibitions as well as running workshops on painting, comics, puppet making

For many years the Coastal Galleries have been closely and actively following international art trends and presenting work by leading foreign artists. Furthermore, they are organising well-established international events like the Forma Viva Open Air Stone Sculpture Collection, Portorož, the Piran Days of Architecture and the Ex-tempore Piran - International Painting and Ceramics.

Collection

With their dynamic and wide ranging exhibition activities, the Coastal Galleries are gradually forming their art collections which directly reflect their programming concepts and are presented to the public in the form of occasional exhibitions, for example the collections Contemporary Slovene Visual Art after 1976, Awarded Works from the International Painters' Ex-tempore and Visual Artists from Primorska. The most well-known collection is the Forma Viva Open Air Stone Sculpture Collection, Portorož.