Gregor Podnar

ROBERT GABRIS (b. Hnusta Likier, Slovakia, 1986) is a Vienna-based artist. He describes the content of his work as a „critical confrontation with identity issues, especially confrontations of different groups excluded from society“ (2021). Gabris embraces experimental forms of drawing as an exercise of resistance to address and explore the often-excluded narratives of marginalised groups at the intersection of class, gender, sexuality and race. His artistic practice could be compared to a persevering inquiry of identity and representation, highlighting the multiple, diverse and interchangeable social groupings or labels that are claimed by and/or assigned to the individual. The action of drawing the subjects of his work, occasionally also including himself, elevates these bodies into existence, all at once challenging the historical narrative of normative societal systems as well as enriching the heritage of contemporary culture.

Born 1986 in Hnusta Likier, Slovakia. Lives and works in Vienna, Austria. EDUCATION 2014 Academy of fine Arts Vienna (AT) 2010 Academy of performing Arts in Bratislava (SK) SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2021 Inventing Human: Sketches, Strabag Kunstforum, Vienna (AT) Insectopia – Solo Performance, ViennaContemporary, Belvedere 21, Vienna (AT) Insectopia, Galerie Za Galerii, Hradec Kralove (CZ) Insectopia, Villa Romana, Florence (IT) 2020 My Country, My Blood!, Sopa Gallery, Kosice (SK) 2019 Cyberlove, Artivist Lab, Prague (CZ) Daydreams, Gandy Gallery, Bratislava (SK) 2018 Fragmente, Bildraum 07, Vienna (AT) 2017 The Sewingroom, Gallery8, Budapest (HU) Lucky patern, Volkskundemuseum, Vienna (AT) The forest, vicino-lontano festival, Bunker del Castello di Udine, Udine (IT) The Sewingroom, Gallery Lokomotiv, Örnsköldsvik (SVE) 2016 13 portraits for human rights, FRA, Vienna (AT) Herzblut, Akademie Graz, Graz (AT) 2015 The Dream, Collective by Pure, Shanghai (CHN) 2013 Abbilder, Amerlinghaus, Vienna (AT) SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2021 Actually, The Dead Are Not Dead 3, Würtembergischer Kunstverrein, Stuttgart (DE) Miznuce Telo, Schaubmarov Mlyn SNG, Pezinok (SK) Sofia Queer Forum, Roma Queer, SAMCA, Sofia (BG) CJCH Awardshow, Moravska Galeria, Brno (CZ) Zlínský salon mladých 2021, Země pod nohama, Zlin (CZ) Talking Hands, Jan Koniarek Gallery, Trnava (SK) Resist!, Rautenrausch Joest Museum, Cologne (DE) 2020 Una forma de ser, Würtembergischer Kunstverrein, Stuttgart (DE) Matter of Art, Biennale, Prague (CZ) Natural Bodies & Organic Genders, A4, Bratislava (SK) Performing the Museum – Online Exhibition, Eriac, Berlin (DE)

Gregor Podnar is a contemporary art gallery established in 2003. It started its activities in an abundant industrial space of the small town of Kranj surrounded by the picturesque landscape of the Carniolan Alps in Slovenia. The gallery moved in 2005 to the city centre of Ljubljana and since 2007 it was based in Berlin, Germany. In spring 2022 the gallery relocated its premises to Vienna, Austria. As curator, Gregor Podnar has been working internationally since the mid 90s and the gallery’s program has developed out of his endeavours in the curatorial field of contemporary art. Beginning with an European focus over the last decade the gallery reached out to a wider international context (the Americas), and directed a strong part of its mission also to art of the modernist past, highlighting a natural link between contemporary and modern art. In this framework the city of Zagreb in the 60s represents a meaningful forgotten nucleus of international exchange of modern and neo-avant-garde art, and our aim is to reestablish those links. We follow, for instance, the historical and aesthetic relations between Brazilian and Croatian art of the 50s and 60s, to present compelling artistic exchanges from the past and better understand the flow of the art of today. Art of importance has always transcended beyond national borders and we believe that the art market is just one element among others to grasp this wonderful and evasive subject.