Blažej Baláž

Blažej Baláž (*1958) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava in the printmaking studio. He teaches at the Faculty of Education at Trnava University in Trnava, where he long led printmaking studios and currently serves as a professor at the Department of Art Education and as a member of artistic boards. He has presented his work at prominent Slovak and Czech institutions, as well as extensively abroad – for instance in London, Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest. For his long-term creative work, he has received numerous prestigious professional awards, most notably the Union of Visual Artists of the Czech Republic Award at the 9th International Biennial of Drawing in Pilsen (2014) and the Special Award by the Jury at the Osten Biennial of Drawing in Skopje (2016). His works are represented in significant public and private collections, such as the Slovak National Gallery or the National Gallery in Prague.

Critical reflection, post-conceptual depth, an analytical approach, and an uncompromising civic stance in the work of Blažej Baláž have secured him the status of a pioneer of Slovak post-conceptual art since the late 1980s. His long-term interest, a field of endless possibilities for exploration, is the conceptual text. Recurring textual structures originally emerged from Baláž's observations of political tension, social trauma, and mechanisms of power. At the same time, his work spans material minimalism, performance art, and the postmodern permeation of symbols into the realms of ecology, economics, or socio-cultural themes. In addition to his unique graphic work, Blažej Baláž has long engaged in installations, objects, and performances in which he critically examines the boundaries between private and public space. In this way, he also fulfills the breadth of the concept and potential uses of the conceptual text.