DK

Early Life

Born in Slovenia, DK studied in Munich and in Cologne. He emerged with the alternative art scene in Ljubljana and is a member of the multimedia artist collective Strip Core. DK lives and works in the city today, producing socially engaged works ranging from photographs to performance.

DK Artworks

Photographs

DK’s photographs—realistic and abstracted—show simple but poignant landscapes and portraits with strong conceptual undertones, often site-specific and prompting new perspectives.

‘The Face’

DK became known for his photorealistic portraits of the members of Metelkova, an autonomous artistic collective and ‘city’ in Ljubljana consisting of seven abandoned military barracks that were converted into social and cultural centres and studio spaces.

Plastered around the outer walls of the repurposed city, enlarged 1 x 1-metre portraits from ‘The Face’ (2001–2002) not only showed the visages of the artists and activists that inhabited it but the marginalised otherness that precedes and underlies state formation.

‘Scotoma’

For his solo exhibition in 2019 at Jakopič Gallery, the artist showed a series of photographs titled ‘Scotoma’—a blind spot in the vision, a dark spot, or a blur. The six-series collection replicated an inward journey towards the parts of the self and the world lesser seen.

‘Behind Eyelids’

Works like ‘Scotoma – Behind Eyelids’, a three-photograph series, directly address concealment through ‘the remnants of what has been seen.’ Following the tradition of Eastern abstract painting, each print looked away from representation to locate the enlightenment in spontaneity.

Showing neither determinate nor indeterminate forms, Behind Eyelids 01 (2018), a digital print depicting an eruption of dust and sand tones, reflects the space between conscious representation and subconscious abstraction.

‘Almost Hope’

In ‘Scotoma – Almost Hope’ and ‘Scotoma – Gloom’, places and scenes are intercepted behind blurred vision, emerging as clusters of blue light and fading nightscapes. Their abstracted form is associated with the inability to see clearly.

‘Memories of Tomorrow’

In ‘Scotoma – Memories of Tomorrow’, 12 blurred landscapes titled after romantic scenes replicate at once reality, fantasy, and mirage. Each narrate a departure, transporting viewers into the photographer’s longings.

Prints showing the North Pole and Mongolian Valleys are blurred through digital alterations, alluding to the gradual dispersion of place. Other images like Memory of Holidays and After a Night Swim replicate the same atmospheric illusion, imbued with the haze of fading memory.

40”

40” showed photographs that captured the faces of musicians of Ljubljana, immortalising their appearances in monochrome beyond the concert hall and the poster. Subjects are invited for a brief 40-second session, replicating their passage and the city’s cultural fluctuation—the same uncertainty and malaise captured in the close ups of individual faces.

Exhibitions

DK’s photographs have shown widely across Europe. His work is published in many catalogues, including two monographs.

DK has exhibited at Paper Positions, Berlin; P/CAS, Paris; Photo Basel; Künstlerhaus, Vienna; Noorderlicht Photofestival, Groningen; 25th Biennale São Paulo; Center for Contemporary Art – Ujazdowskie, Warsaw; Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna; National Gallery, Ljubljana; Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana; International Photo Festival, Maribor; International Contemporary Art Fair, Budapest; City Art Museum, Ljubljana; and Zeitgenössische Fotografie, Graz.

Gallery

DK is represented by Galerija Fotografija in Ljubljana.

Website

The artist’s website can be found here.

Elaine YJ Zheng | Ocula | 2021