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The open call for participation was published on 7 November 2025 in Slovenian and English, and applications were accepted until 15 February 2026.
A total of 194 artists from 57 different countries applied to the open call: Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Cyprus, Ecuador, Finland, Philippines, France, Ghana, Greece, Georgia, Hong Kong, Croatia, India, Iraq, Iran, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Israel, South Africa, Canada, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Lebanon, Lithuania, Hungary, Morocco, Mexico, Moldova, Germany, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA.
The members of the gallery’s expert council faced a demanding task, selecting 10 artists from among the many applicants who will participate in this year’s camp. As in the previous year, all selected artists are coming to Trebnje for the first time.
The selected participants are:
- Yun Amantur (Kyrgyzstan)
- Zdenka Bukovec (Slovenia)
- Sema Çulam (Turkey)
- Konrad Dąbrowski (Poland)
- Georgi Georgiev (Bulgaria)
- Elham Hemmat (Iran / United Kingdom)
- Dejan Hribar (Slovenia)
- Taras Romaniuk – Taras Keb (Ukraine)
- Alejandra Santos (Mexico / Germany)
- Katarina Šaptović (Serbia)
Camp opening:
Tuesday, 9 June 2026, at 9:00 AM
Gallery of Naïve Artists Trebnje, Goliev trg 1
Camp closing:
Saturday, 13 June 2026, around 12:00 PM
STIK Hall, Trebnje
The closing ceremony will include the presentation of awards and the announcement of the winner of the 59th International Meeting of Naïve Artists Trebnje.
🖌️ The creative process will be open to visitors at the Gallery of Naïve Artists Trebnje from Tuesday, 9 June, to Friday, 12 June 2026, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM and from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM.
You are warmly invited to visit the gallery, meet the artists in person, and witness the creation of new artworks.
Yun Amantur (Kyrgyzstan) writes that he has been painting since childhood and has always been drawn to large formats and meticulous work. He has no formal academic education; his visual language developed intuitively through experience and observation. After graduating from art school in 2021, he moved to Saint Petersburg, where he faced isolation, challenges, and fear of failure. These very experiences became a source of strength and inspiration. In his works, he explores human emotions and the dynamics of urban life, translating them into forms, colours, and compositions. His painting Kishka embodies despair and resistance—a city that attracts and devours, and a person searching for a path through darkness. His art arises from emotion and intuition and seeks to speak directly to the viewer.
Zdenka Bukovec (Slovenia), as an art teacher in Trebnje, led the Little Camp of Young Artists for primary schools of Dolenjska, Bela krajina, and Posavje for more than fifteen years. She followed the camp’s activities from its beginnings and also participated in the organising committee. After retiring in 2009, she devoted herself entirely to artistic creation and cooperation with the Trebnje Artists’ Association. She is particularly drawn to still lifes and thematic cycles, which she develops until she has fully expressed herself through images. Among her recognisable bodies of work are olive trees, stone futuristic pyramids, painted beehive panels, motifs of old chests, fish, and more recent cycles of peacocks, roosters, and imaginative winged beings. She most often works in acrylic on canvas, and her hobby is restoring old stone walls.
Sema Çulam (Turkey) was born in 1951 in Izmir. She began oil painting in secondary school and continued her studies at the Faculty of Education in Buca near Izmir. Since 1979 she has worked as a professional artist. Until 2000 she created figurative and abstract works, after which she changed her style. She is a member of several international art associations, including IAA/AIAP UNESCO, ABNA, and World Citizen Artists. She has exhibited throughout Europe, America, and Canada and received numerous first prizes. She lives half the year in Istanbul and spends the other half creating in her studio in Milan. Her works are held in many domestic and international collections.
Konrad Dąbrowski (Poland) was born in 1984. His childhood in the countryside, among animals, the rhythm of the seasons, and folk art strongly shaped his artistic sensitivity. Today he lives in the village of Cichostów Kolonia near Lublin, where he runs a small farm and produces natural beverages. He is also active in the local community and volunteer fire brigade. His paintings are emotional records of childhood memories and personal interpretations of religious scenes, rural life, and nature. He creates intuitively, without sketches, and in addition to painting he also works with glass painting and paper cut-outs. His works are in private collections and museums at home and abroad.
Georgi Georgiev (Bulgaria) is an independent architect with more than 45 years of experience, including twenty years in ecological construction using natural materials. He has participated in many important projects, including the Super Borovetz ski centre. In 2013 he received special recognition for the children’s ecological station Beli Brezi near Sofia. He has published numerous professional articles on ecological architecture abroad. Since 2011 he has lived among the Belogradchik Rocks, where he creates encaustic works on wood. He prepares his own colours from natural pigments, and the wax comes from his own beehives. His works are made exclusively from natural materials and radiate harmony and sustainability.
Elham Hemmat (Iran / United Kingdom) is an award-winning interdisciplinary designer and visual artist. In her work she explores the human body as a carrier of memory, identity, and emotion. She works with earth and clay as living memory of place and time. Her current series Docile Bodies explores the body as an individual symbol and a space of collective experience. The ceramic figures celebrate diversity, transformation, and human connection. She has exhibited in more than fifteen countries worldwide. Through sculpture, painting, and design, she creates works that transcend borders and invite reflection on the shared, imperfect beauty of human existence.
Dejan Hribar (Slovenia, b. 1982) is an artist and wood sculptor whose creative path is marked by the search for new forms of expression. Initially trained as a goldsmith, he led the DEVUR brand for more than a decade, combining wood and precious metals into unique jewellery and functional objects. In 2019 he turned to monumental wooden sculptures. His work is closely connected to Slovenian nature, especially forests, which are a source of inspiration and reflection on social and environmental issues. He mainly uses oak and walnut. His style is characterised by contemporary minimalism, clean lines, and refined surface treatment. In dialogue with naive art, he also explores spontaneity, playfulness, and the power of simplicity.
Taras Romaniuk – Taras Keb (Ukraine) works in painting, graphic art, decorative art, and applied art. He feels close to primitivism, art brut, and naive art. In his works he explores myths, the inner world of the self-taught artist, the creative process, and the relationship between the artist and society. He is also devoted to researching Ukrainian and world primitive and naive art.
Alejandra Santos – Ale Santos (Mexico / Germany), born in 1996 in Mexico City, is a collage artist based in Berlin. She uses experimental media such as gold leaf, mirrors, textured painting, animation, and automatic drawing. She has also expanded her knowledge through lithography, woodcut, ceramics, film, and professional painting. She has collaborated on international projects, including with Autodesk and the Olympic Games in Rio, Tokyo, and Paris. She has exhibited in galleries, museums, and festivals in Mexico and Germany. Her work is inspired by Mexican Baroque, Latin American maximalism, and the diverse landscapes of Mexico.
Katarina Šaptović (Serbia) holds a degree in tourism and works as an independent artist. She has presented her work in numerous group exhibitions and three solo exhibitions. She uses hand embroidery as a contemporary artistic medium. In 2018 she founded the brand KezVez, through which she explores contemporary uses of hand embroidery on textiles and other surfaces.
