Alen Ožbolt

 

Born on August 30, 1966 in Ptuj, Slovenia. attended high Art&Design school in Ljubljana. began my art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia, and continued at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, specializing in sculpture and in art theory, and received a B.A. in 1997.

Between 1984 and 1995, collaborate with Janez Jordan on a series of art projects under the name »VSSD« (Slovene for »Painter, Do You Know Your Duty«). At first, we worked as street/outdoor action artists, in 1986, we began exhibiting in numerous galleries and other spaces in the former Yugoslavia and abroad (Ljubljana, Thessaloniki, Zagreb, Bologna, Sarajevo, Salzburg, Milan, Poprad, Venice, Vienna, Graz, Münich, Linz, Bochum, Weimar, Cardiff, Frankfurt among others). In 1995 VSSD represented Slovenia at the Venice Biennale.

Since 1996, I have worked alone. I have created a number of art projects and exhibitions in Slovenia and internationally (Ljubljana, Stuttgart, Zagreb, Budapest, Warsaw, Klagenfurt, New York, Trieste, Sarajevo, San Francisco, Wichita).

In 1993 participated in the Frontiers Conference (Canterbury University, U.K.), and in 1994, won a StudioProgram scholarship (Weimar, Germany). In 1997 was awarded an ArtsLink scholarship, which enabled me to work and exhibit in New York (NewHouse Gallery, Snug Harbor Cultural Center) and prepared two lectures and studio instructions at the School of Visual Arts (N.Y.). In 2000, won a Fulbright grant and as a visiting artist at the San Francisco Art Institute put together lectures, solo exhibition and the mailing project Letter II. In 2001, completed a “dictionary for young artists” entitled Artventures & Artertainment, an image-text project (M’Ars).

Edited and write for numerous catalogues on behalf of the exhibitions. In 1996, compiled a book of articles, essays and artist statements, The Word of a Painting 1984-1995. And in 2005 for the occasion of the exhibition Love is a Battlefield together with Kariž and Čučnik made an artists book of drawings, statements, texts and poems.

Live and work in Ljubljana.