Tjaša Iris IN THE PRESS

ARTS BEAT, SINGAPORE EVENT GUIDE, February 2010

TJAŠA IRIS, RADIO KOPER 8. 9. 2009 - Interviju z novinarko Tatjano Gregorič

 
TJAŠA IRIS - Radio Koper, 8. 9. 2009_0001

PRIMORSKE NOVICE, 3 May 2009

KOPER > Inviting gardens in the magical realism of painter Tjaša Iris at the Meduza Gallery

Healthy mind in the crimson of fire

“Soft, warm, alive, gentle, yellow like straw, yellow like the flame of matches, it enters through the open window without you knowing where it comes from…” Thus the Nobel prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio describes in his poem L’Inconnu sur la terre the sensing of light, the kind that emanates currently from the Meduza Gallery in Koper and in which the paintings of Tjaša Iris are bathed.

In this most beautiful of lights, the colours produced by Tjaša Iris have acquired a different kind of sparkle, quivering and unclear, such that the viewer, who stands before it after coming in from the grey outdoors, is at first gently blinded by yellow, green, pink, purple and red. Timeless moments of absolute peace are captured in magical realism. It seems as if photographs have been fused into commemorative painting that has melted onto the canvas from a daydream.

“In today’s chaotic world, where there is no longer time for soothing gazes and pauses for breath, these timeless spaces are a luxurious oasis of peace and happiness, packed with joy and energy. Is this perhaps a deliberate altering of reality, or is Tjaša’s world really like that? Her positive attitude to life, which becomes a true veneration of physical reality, can be sensed in all her paintings. They bring to mind electromagnetic recordings that glow before us, drawing us in and linking us invisibly. They belong to us, they suck us into them and become part of us even before we are aware of it” writes exhibition curator Tatjana Sirk of her experience of seeing the paintings, which bear the titles Poppy Field, Trulli, Garden, Capri and Blue Palm, in her accompanying text for the exhibition.

Her acrylics on canvas, sometimes also on jute, are full of images from the real world, painted in a way that has nothing in common with possible painting trends. “It is important to me that the paintings are really mine,” says Tjaša Iris of the transformations of colour perceptions that alter the laws of the universe. Sometimes she has changed landscapes, and today she is in the gardens of Ravello, Miramare and Tuscany. “The energy of pure colours leads us off into distant lands, where colours are still a part of the everyday – the decorations on clothes, homes, and everyday objects that captivate us so much when we travel, then when we come home we do not actually know what to do with them, and they become distant,” continues Tatjana Sirk. The paintings of Tjaša Iris are truly different, they live in a different way, “although they recalled for me already known feelings and experiences.”

The Kranj-born painter graduated in painting and photography at Fortman Studios, the International School of Fine Arts in Florence, then at the painting department of Minerva Academy in the Netherlands she completed a postgraduate course, and after living in Venice and California she now commutes between Paris and Branik. Previously she painted, but now her medium is closer to drawing. The brushes are finer, and there is greater detail. Some paintings are still not finished. There is something elusive that hovers around her, calling on the artist to be allowed to stay beside her. Yet the decorativeness that is present – as Tatjana Sirk concludes – is always subordinate to the primary and sincere message of an almost child-like and for that very reason all the more credible joie de vivre. “Life is light and light is colour, the symbol of the human spirit and the mirror of its spirit.”

Photo caption:

Colours play without rest in the gardens of painter Tjaša Iris

TV KOPER - CAPODISTRIA, 6 MAY 2009

" PAINTING EXHIBITION OF TJAŠA IRIS AT GALLERY MEDUZA, COASTAL GALLERIES PIRAN, SLOVENIA"

TV PRIMORKA, 30 August 2008

"ARTIST IN RESIDENCY PROGAM VILLA FLORA"

Villa Flora Artist in Residency Program in Slovenia. pt.1/3

Villa Flora Artist in Residency Program ARTISTS' COLONY BRANIK - RIHEMBERK Pre-Coastal Wine Country of Slovenia .The Program is organized by Villa Flora Artist's Residency. By the founder - owner - painter Tjaša Iris and a rotating group of diverse artists, academics, critics and others that nominates potential candidates for the Villa Flora Artist in Residency Program. Session 2008. Participants: Tjaša Iris (Slovenia) http://tjasairis.com/ , Diek Grobler (South Africa) http://www.art.co.za/diekgrobler/default.htm, Mary Melilli (U.S.A.) http://marymelilli.com/. http://www.zlatadolina.si/artist-in-residency

Villa Flora Artist in Residency Program in Branik pt.2/3

Villa Flora Artist in Residency Program Slovenia. pt. 3/3