We invite you to the exhibition STANO FILKO: COLOUR AND SYSTEM, FRONT AND BACK
Opening (Vernissage): 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
Opening hours:
Tuesday – Friday: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Saturday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Admission free
Stanislav / Stano Filko, born in Veľká Hradná (15 June 1937 – 23 October 2015), ranks among the most significant and internationally most widely reflected visual artists not only of his region, but of Slovak art history as a whole. He continually returned to the idea of home 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 and Design in Bratislava under Professor Peter Matejka (1960–1965). Alongside an endless range of media, Filko has continuously devoted himself to painting and monumentalism ever since.
The exhibition STANO FILKO: COLOUR AND SYSTEM, FRONT AND BACK is based on his experimentation within this discipline and presents a retrospective interpretation of his lifelong creative pursuits, beginning with his years of study. As the artist himself intended, the exhibition offers a literal entry into his paintings—not only into their front sides, but also into their reverses, which were often of equal importance to Filko. Painting is thus presented not as a “flat” medium, but as a truthful object and installation in its full spatio-temporal dimension, enhanced by the contemporary architectural solution by Ján Studený.
The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with the complete repertoire of the artist’s approaches to colour, 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 an intense experience of colour, painting, and the image-as-object-as-space, spanning a timeline from “classical” modernism, through neo-avant-gardes, to the present. In doing so, it provides inspiration and a didactic reflection on the life (growth, development, progress, becoming) of an artist as such.
The exhibition presents an exhaustive retrospective view of Stano Filko’s work and will also feature pieces that will be shown to the public for the very first time.
Works are kindly loaned by The Estate of Stano Filko.
The exhibition STANO FILKO: COLOUR 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).
