Valentin Oman: Ecce Homo

On the occasion of the 90th birthday of Valentin Oman (1935, Villach, Austria), several national and international exhibition projects will take place in 2025 as a tribute to his work.

The most extensive exhibition of this artist to date, with approximately 140 works, can be seen at the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum in Bratislava. The presentation of selected groups of works from the most important creative periods on both floors of the museum presents a retrospective cross-section from early work in the 1960s to more recent paintings and installations. Visitors to the exhibition will embark on a journey through time spanning more than 60 years to follow the artist’s footsteps in search of the perfect fragment.

“Ecce Homo” – “Behold the Man” is not only the title of the exhibition, but the central theme of the
works of the Carinthian Slovenian Valentin Oman. The human being in all its aspects and forms is the
main focus of his work and the topos of his creative cycles. The present times show us that the theme
of “Ecce Homo” remains current civilizationally, politically and in the context of the digital age, and will be in the future. The artist`s human portrayals are relief-like, multi-layered and fragmentary and are reminiscent of frescoes. The distinctive formal and material language of his works stems from
imaginative stimuli from nature and civilization and is based on technically complex and multi-layered
procedures on which Valentin Oman worked for decades, so that the imaginative stimulus in all its
(im)perfect beauty and quality can be best transformed into an image.

The inspiring world of natural forms plays a key role in the creation of Valentin Oman’s paintings. He
says, “Again and again I see patterns of my own formal language in nature.” These motifs serve as a
source of artistic inspiration in the creation of fragmentary panel paintings and installations. Their
abstract shapes motivate him to search for and develop figurative elements. In doing so, he always
prioritizes preserving the imperfect, the unfinished, so to say the secret.