Tribute to River Soča - A Painting Exhibition by Živa Agrež

Artist Živa Agrež returns to Bled Castle, where her work once again reflects her deep connection with nature. This time, she presents the painting cycle A Tribute to the Soča, in which she captures the power, movement, and light of the emerald river through colour, texture, and energetic brushstrokes. The works were created as a personal reflection on her direct observation and experience of the Soča and its constant transformation.

Živa Agrež graduated in Comparative Literature and Art History from the University of Ljubljana. She began her professional career as a journalist before devoting herself to visual art and further developing her skills at a school of drawing and painting and through numerous workshops and courses. She primarily works with acrylics and mixed media, also using palette knives. Her works are characterised by stylised motifs, rapid and decisive strokes, and multiple layers of paint that create a distinctly dynamic surface.

The artist regularly participates in group exhibitions and art fairs in Slovenia and abroad. She has received several awards for her work, including third prize for abstract art at the International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Chianciano in 2024.

To date, she has created seventeen painting cycles. Visitors to Bled Castle are already familiar with her work. In 2022, she presented the cycle Metamorphoses of the Olive Tree: The Tree of Peace (2020) at the STOLP Gallery, followed two years later by The Dolomites: A City of Castles (2019). With the exhibition A Tribute to the Soča, she returns to Bled Castle with a new artistic perspective on one of Slovenia’s most recognisable natural icons.

The cycle entitled A Tribute to the Soča began as a reflection on the artist’s direct observation of and immersion in the life of this green-blue river. She faced the demanding task of translating her fascination onto canvas and fully conveying movement through the static medium of painting. She transformed her perceptions into a unique visual rhythm of colours, structures, light, spaces, and compositions. Her works reveal the micro-events within a macro motif, followed by a large-scale visual manifestation of the chosen beauty, as well as the space and time of the river.
- Anamarija Stibilj Šajn