Valentin Oman: An artist between war and identity in Carinthia

Valentin Oman: An artist between war and identity in Carinthia

Klagenfurt, Österreich - Valentin Oman, who will celebrate his 90th birthday in the coming year, will be honored with an extensive exhibition in the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum in Bratislava. Over 150 works by the artist, who was born in St. Stefan/Steben in 1935, are shown here. The exhibition, which will open on March 1st and last until April 21, represents Oman's creative work, which ranges from early print graphics to its latest collages in which he deals with the effects of the Ukraine war. According to the Kleine Zeitung , his work is increasingly politically shaped in its recent works.

an artist between tradition and modernity

Oman, whose artistic career is strongly shaped by his passion for print graphics, combines hundreds of revised photographs in his latest series, which reflect his critical view of the current political conflicts. The viewers invite the work to think about human constitution - a central topic in Oman's work, which he summarizes under the title "Ecce Homo". In a conversation with the APA, he said that the representation of man in his imperfect, fragile form was particularly important to him. This thematic discussion also becomes clear in his earlier work, in which he processed the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

In addition to this remarkable exhibition in the Danube Museum, Oman will exhibit in the Salzburg Gallery Welz in May and in the Vienna Gallery at Albertina before his works are shown in Slovenian Kranj in June and in September in Ebenau Castle. According to oman-valentin.com , he has exhibited in numerous important galleries and museums in the course of his career, whereby many of his works can be found in public space and church spaces. Oman is more than an artist; He is a chronicler of his time who tirelessly deals with the challenges of humanity.