We invite you to the opening of an exhibition by a renowned artist originating from Veľká Hradná near Trenčín.
STANO FILKO: COLOR AND SYSTEM, FRONT AND BACK
Opening: 13 February 2026 at 6:30 PM
Exhibition duration: 14 February – 18 April 2026
Curator: Boris Ondreička
Exhibition architect: Ján Studený
Venue: Miloš Alexander Bazovský Gallery, Trenčín
Admission free
Stanislav / Stano Filko, a native of Veľká Hradná (15 June 1937 – 23 October 2015), ranks among the most significant and internationally recognized visual artists not only of his region, but of Slovak art history as a whole. He continuously returned to his homeland in both his thoughts and his work. After completing his studies in exhibition design at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Bratislava (1956–1960), he continued at the Department of Monumental Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava under Professor Peter Matejka (1960–1965). Alongside an endless range of media, Filko devoted himself permanently to painting and monumentalism.
The exhibition STANO FILKO: COLOR AND SYSTEM, FRONT AND BACK builds on his experimentation with this discipline and offers a retrospective interpretation of his lifelong creative endeavors, beginning with his years of study. As the artist himself explicitly intended, the exhibition provides a literal entry into his paintings—not only into their front sides, but also into their reverses, which were often equally important in Filko’s work. Painting is thus presented not as a “flat” medium, but as a genuine object and installation in its full temporal and spatial dimensionality, further enhanced by the contemporary architectural design by Ján Studený.
The exhibition offers an exceptional opportunity to be in direct contact with the complete repertoire of the artist’s approaches to color, painting, and the image. It allows works to be perceived from all sides and, in several cases, even welcomes visitors inside them. The curatorial project delivers a highly intense experience and encounter with color, painting, and the image-as-object-as-space, spanning a period from “classical” modernism through neo-avant-gardes to the present. In doing so, it provides inspiration and didactic insight drawn from the life (growing up, development, progress, becoming) of the artist as such.
The exhibition presents a thoroughly retrospective view of Stano Filko’s work and will also include pieces that are being shown to the public exclusively for the very first time.
The works are kindly loaned by The Estate of Stano Filko.
The exhibition STANO FILKO: COLOR AND SYSTEM, FRONT AND BACK partially overlaps with his large-scale retrospective STANO FILKO: 12 CHAKRAS OF BECOMING at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg (opening on 2 April).
Photo and video recordings will be taken during the event and may be published later.
