Zora Plešnar - retrospective

The Maribor Art Gallery is proud to present the first retrospective exhibition of photographic works of Zora Plešnar (1925), the most prominent Slovenian female photographer of the 1970s and 1980s. She joined the photographic club Fotoklub Maribor in 1968, and two years later − as the only woman − took part at the defining exhibition of the Maribor Circle photo group, which aspired towards avant-garde modernism. Surrounded by outstanding photographers (Ivan Dvoršak, Zmago Jeraj, Janko Jelnikar, Branimir Jerneić, Stojan Kerbler), Zora Plešnar established a sovereign artistic expression already in her first series of works entitled Passing. Within three decades of creative work, she enriched Slovenian photography with excellent black-and-white series Passing, Above the Clouds, Reflections, Celebration, Terelj, and Birth of a City / New Belgrade. Her photographs expand into the surreal, illusionary, imaginary, and dreamlike. The real here and now of her reflections, clouds, hills, or an emerging city, is universal and timeless, in touch with the dreamlike dimension, which passes freely between the external image and the inner experience. Throughout her carrier, she also dedicated herself to portraits in which she was able to fully express her warm communicative nature and her affection for children. With its directness and authenticity, the series Childhood therefore undoubtedly represents the peak of Plešnar's portrait photography.