Petra Varl

PETRA VARL is a visual artist working in the field of drawing, graphic art and spatial installations. In more than thirty years of practice, she has been intensively involved in drawing and has developed a characteristic visual language that addresses the viewer in a direct but at the same time poetical way. Recently, her main interest is creating multimedia spatial installations which are flirting with aspects of performative art. By removing redundant elements, she builds a completely new space, in which she brings to the fore the experience of the viewer, who breathes life into the work of art in a precisely designed ambience. She has participated in numerous local and international exhibitions and residencies. In 1996 she represented Slovenia at the São Paulo Biennale with her project Commoplace. She is the recipient of the Zlata ptica award for visual arts (1995) and the Ivana Kobilca award for the Near Light installation at the Božidar Jakac Gallery in Kostanjevica (2018). Since 2010 she is a full professor at the Department of Fine Arts at of the Faculty of Education at the University of Maribor, where she teaches drawing and graphic art.