Location: Loggia, Center for Culture and Lifelong Education Zlatna Vrata (Diocletian's 7)

Duration: October 25 - November 17, 2023, exhibition opening on October 25 at 7:00 PM

Organized by the Croatian Association of Visual Artists - Split (HULU-Split) and the Center for Culture and Lifelong Education Zlatna Vrata

With the announcement of continued collaboration between HULU and the Center for Culture and Lifelong Education Zlatna Vrata next year, we are pleased to invite you to the final exhibition in this year's cycle of contemporary art at the Loggia gallery. The program concludes with the exhibition 'Life Under High Pressure' by the young sculptor Manuela Pauk. The exhibition opens at the Loggia gallery on Wednesday, October 25, at 7:00 PM and can be viewed for free until November 17, 2023. The curator of the exhibition is Jadranka Pintarić.

The ecological project/ambient installation "Life Under High Pressure" presents sculptures of marine snails, animals that live in coral reefs, in a place that is one of the most endangered by ecological crisis. The exhibition allows visitors to contemplate the environment in both light and darkness.

"Insignificant, like many sea creatures, until news comes that they have become extinct. The hidden beauty of the seabed, here from Manuela's hands, in two forms: in the light to observe these delicate, malleable forms, in a riot of colors; in the dark to show, by sparkling, how dangerous they are to all their enemies. They arm themselves with the poison of their enemies. Psychedelic sea thieves. They touch, taste, and smell with their antennas. Their gill appendage is like a periscope. Luckily for them, they are not on our menu, so they are inconsequential. However, we can now experience them in an earthly form, shaped by human hands, as beings more than a gelatinous mass, whether tiny or gigantic (depending on the species). They fit perfectly in the palm of your hand, 'foot' for feeding."

(from the preface by Jadranka Pintarić)

About the artist:

Manuela Pauk was born in 1994 in Zagreb and grew up in Šibenik. In 2018, she graduated in Sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Through her spatial installations and sculptures, she explores the relationship between civilization and nature.

Her solo exhibitions include "Nature and Society" at the Kazamat Gallery in Osijek (with Ana Ratković Sobota and Mia Marijević Akrap), "Life Under High Pressure" at the Šira Gallery in Zagreb (2022), "Frogs" at the St. Krševan Gallery in Šibenik (with Tara Beat Racz, 2021), "Old World" at the Nest Gallery in Zagreb (2020), "Pattern for a Tortoise" at the Jozo Kljaković Memorial Collection in Zagreb (2020), "Playful Rush" at the Matica Hrvatska Gallery in Zagreb (2019) and the St. Krševan Gallery in Šibenik (2018), and "Muse" at the Marija Jurić Zagorka Library in Zagreb (2018).

Some of the important group exhibitions where she has exhibited include the Sculpture Triennial in Zagreb (2022), the Ceramics Biennial in Aveiro, Portugal (2021), the Salon of Youth, the "Situation" exhibition at the Forum Gallery in Zagreb (2020), "90 Days Lockdown" at the Luxelakes Gallery in Chengdu, China (2020), "Order is Our Art" at the Kamba Garage in Zagreb (2019), and the 40th Split Salon in Split (2018), where she was among the five finalists for the salon award. She was also among the five finalists for the Young Artists Award "Zlatna Lubenica" (2022).

Other notable projects include her "Plastic Sea Turtle" project, where she mentored students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in producing a sea turtle sculpture from marine waste, and an exhibition as part of the Okolo festival with work in public space titled "The Curtain Rises." Her works "Adwaita" and "Češer" were acquired as part of the collection of the Croatian Natural History Museum.

More info on link:hulu-split.hr/izlozbe/manuela-pauk-zivot-pod-velikim-pritiskom/