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On September 30, 2024, the Council of the CIK Trebnje published an open call in both Slovenian and English. Applications were open until February 14, 2025. We received as many as 66 applications from artists around the world – from Bulgaria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Georgia, Croatia, India, Italy, South Africa, Canada, Cuba, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
The members of the Gallery’s Expert Council faced a challenging task. Out of all the applicants, they selected 10 participating artists to take part in the 58th International Meeting of Naive Artists.
Start of the meeting: Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at 9:00 AM
(Gallery of Naive Artists Trebnje, Goliev trg 1, 8210 Trebnje)
End of the meeting: Saturday, June 14, 2025, from 7:00 to 8:00 PM
(Municipal Park Trebnje).
The event will include the award ceremony and the announcement of the winner of the 58th International Meeting of Naive Artists in Trebnje, who will be presented with a solo exhibition.
Selected artists:
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Andjelković Zoran, Serbia
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Blagojević Stanislava, Spain (Serbia)
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Bogataj Vinko, Slovenia
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Fedotova Nina, Ukraine
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Fonollosa Cristina, Spain
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Hussein Mariam, United Kingdom (Syria)
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Modlitbová Adžana, Slovakia
- Tan Ia (Tania Ovchatova-Papisashvili), Georgia
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Šalda Dora, Slovenia
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Zarras Nikolaos, Greece
The artists will be creating their works at the Gallery of Naive Artists Trebnje (Goliev trg 1) from Tuesday, June 10, to Friday, June 13, 2025. The working hours are structured in two intensive creative sessions daily: from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM and from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM.
Cristina Fonollosa (Spain, born 1951)
The painter, graphic artist, and illustrator works in the style of naive art, infused with a poetic and fantastical vision of everyday life. Her works depict love, loneliness, desire, and play, often through images of mothers with children, Mediterranean landscapes, mermaids, and saints.
She has contributed to the illustration of numerous literary works by Spanish and Latin American authors. She studied at the Massana School in Barcelona, where she focused on graphic design and serigraphy. She was a member of FAD (The Foundation for Decorative Arts) and a judge for international art competitions. She has taught art in Spain and Cuba, including in programs for marginalized groups.
She has exhibited across Europe and Latin America, including at the Museum of Naive Art in Jaén, Montserrat Gallery in New York, and the Grand Theatre in Havana. For her work, she has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Cuban Angelote de Oro. Her art, which combines figuration, symbolism, and storytelling, places her among the leading representatives of her generation. More about artist.
Zoran Andjelković (Serbia, born 1967)
Painter has been creating art for over 35 years. His paintings, filled with history, mythology, and national heroes, leave a lasting impression on everyone who sees them.
Zoran discovered his love for painting as a child, listening to stories of wars, heroism, and national heroes from the elders. His paintings tell stories from the past, with a special focus on scenes from Serbian history. Zoran does not limit himself to traditional motifs. His technique blends naive painting with elements of surrealism and fantasy. He draws inspiration from everyday life, stories, newspaper headlines, and television content.
His art has taken him around the world. He has exhibited in France, Canada, the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Russia, and other countries. His works are popular both among Serbs living abroad and among foreigners who are drawn to his unique narrative and style. Thanks to the internet, his work has found its way into collections across all continents, with particularly large numbers of orders coming from the United States.
His message to younger generations of artists is to be patient and dedicated to their craft. He believes that art is not just material wealth, but spiritual fulfillment that brings true satisfaction. At the same time, he urges people not to forget their roots, as there is no future without the past. Zoran Andjelković remains loyal to his village, his history, and his art, which tells the story of the Serbian people on canvas. More about artist.
Nikolaos Zarras, (Greece, born 1954)
Nikolaos Zarras, a modern “Theofilos” that paves is own lonely path, was born and raised in the area of Sykies, in Thessaloniki, Greece. Self-taught, multifaceted and with a restless spirit, he showed his artistic talent already in his very early student years. Continuously attempting to subdue his art leads him to battle with colors and materials. Glass is one of his most beloved materials, which he shapes, colors and carves, even though, as he says, it continues to “resist” him! His paintings captivate with the power of their vivid colors. The figures, with the large, expressive, black eyes and the clear gaze, lure you into their world. You search to find yourself somewhere in there, hidden, along with the sweetness of innocence and the purity of childhood memories. The luminous female, omnipresent in his life and work, is looking for her place across and within his many diverse creations that revive even materials such as pieces of wooden pallets or sea-soaked driftwood. Creations that remain still and
silent, offering the beauty of their diversity to the beholder. Nikolaos Zarras has made over 50 personal exhibitions in various Greek cities, among which Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos and Thassos, and has participated in many collective art exhibitions. From 2009 to 2017 he lived, created and exhibited in Zambia, Africa. It was there that he taught art and painting in the Lubuto orphanage in the city of Lusaka. His involvement with teaching and his experiences in the African continent inspired him to write and illustrate book for young and old children, titled “The great trip of little Tikou -Tikou”. He has also illustrated the book “Persians of Aeschylus” from the Greek publications Ellinika Grammata.
Zarras continues to showcase his paintings in individual and collective exhibitions in Greece and abroad, inviting the visitor to a mental journey to another reality. More about artist.
Mariam Hussein, United Kingdom (Siria, born 1996)
Syrian mixed media artist is exploring themes of mental health, bodily autonomy, identity, home, social justice, and how they intersect. Art has been a form of therapy and escapism for over a decade. From day one, making art has been a way of survival. Through art, she doesn’t need to worry about maintaining a certain persona and can simply be herself.
Her inspiration comes from her day-to-day life as a human, sister, daughter, consumer, worker, Arab woman in London, and migrant, as well as how these identities are represented in film, music, and other media. She works with a variety of materials, including spray paint, acrylics, newspaper cutouts, oil pastels—anything she can get her hands on to create visual art that conveys these conversations through rich colors, textures, and energetic lines and swirls that she has developed over years of practice, particularly in combating depression and anxiety.
Additionally, since August 2024, she has been training as a tattoo artist, another way she applies her artistic skills. More about artist.
Adžana Modlitbová, (Slovakia, born 1974)
The artist is living in Bratislava (capital city of Slovakia). Visual art enchanted Adžana in her childhood when she has begun to develop her talent on the Folk school of visual art. Later, she has decided to enhance her skills and to get new insights into the various techniques of painting via different painting courses. The most significant influence to her way of paining has been brought by the academic painter Ian Keeble. He helps her to identified herself within the scale of different painting styles.
She had not been looking for the classification of her style of painting from the very beginning, but she had been painting for her own pleasure. As the time passed by and she had received a lot of positive reviews to her Works, she had decided to try participate on competition “ART SPECTRUM”. The qualified jury decided to change the category where her work was originally enrolled to a new one „insita/ naive art“. As will be shown later this event revealed the painting style represented in her paintings. Naive and pure perception of the world is reflected in her paintings. We can also find the beauty of Slovak country, folks and a traditional Slovak’s folk costumes and the ornaments colorfully depicted in her works.
But the most significant is materialization of her dreams and imagination in Adžana’s paintings. She has decided to support visual art, tinkering and more other artistic activities for the general public interest by a special civil association ART 40. In 2018 she has also introduced a new international roject “NAIVA BRATISLAVA”. The aim of this project has been to raise the public awareness of the naive art via promotion of naive art painters on the international exhibition. More about artist.
Tan Ia (Tania Ovchatova-Papisashvili), Georgia (Russia, born 1961)
Artist was born on May 11, 1961, in Russia. She studied at the Technical Institute in Astrakhan, a city that played a significant role in shaping her artistic development.
In 1985, she married and moved with her husband to Tbilisi, Georgia. The breathtaking nature of Georgia, along with the historic architecture of old Tbilisi, has been a profound and lasting source of inspiration for her work. Tania is a Georgian naïve artist who has been exhibiting her art since 1985. She is a member of the International Union of Artists and has been recognized with prestigious awards, including the Silver Medal at exhibitions of naïve art in Moscow (1985) and Paris (1986). More about artist.
Stanislava Blagojević, Spain (Serbia, born 1977)
Stanislava Blagojević is a self-taught expressionist artist who creates using acrylic and oil on stretched canvas, recycled plywood, wooden panels, and repurposed fabric. Her art is deeply rooted in emotion, solitude, memory, and resilience, capturing raw, unspoken moments through brushstrokes, layered textures, and bold colors.
Her work leans toward abstract figurative expressionism, focusing on the tension between presence and absence, movement and stillness. She embraces imperfection—both in her subjects and materials—and allows the medium itself to help shape the narrative. Whether conveying the enduring weight of the past in Daddy Issues, the introspective loneliness of A Shadow of Myself, or the emotional heaviness of 2024: The Year of Heavy Hearts, each piece reflects a deeply personal yet universally recognizable experience.
She often paints figures that exist in the space between worlds—on the edge of memory, transition, or reflection. Her creative process is intuitive, building emotion through texture and contrast, letting color carry the weight of the unspoken. Through her paintings, she invites viewers to pause, feel, and connect—not just with the art, but with themselves. More about artist.
Nina Fedotova, (Ukraine, born 1981)
Contemporary artist born and currently living in Uman, Cherkasy region, Ukraine.
I am an accountant by first profession and have 20 years of experience in this profession. But since childhood I have dreamed of being an artist. It was only in 2011 that my dream came true when the first private art studio opened in my city. Since then, my journey as an artist has begun.
I work in oil painting. Each of my works is an attempt to rethink reality through the prism of surrealism, minimalism and conceptual art.
Through painting, I remind myself and others that life, despite its complexity and versatility, is beautiful. It deserves attention, love and rethinking. Creativity allows us to see it from a different perspective, to reassess what we have and find new meanings.
Member of the artistic association “ART-Uman”. More about artist.
Dora Šalda, (Slovenija, born 2007)
Youngest participant of the 58th Meeting was born in Maribor, where she attended the Bratje Polančič Primary School. She is currently a third-year student at the First Grammar School of Maribor. In addition to her schoolwork, she has actively participated in various extracurricular activities, including bouldering, numerous courses, and climbing school.
Artistic creation holds a special place in her life. She contributes to various school and external projects with her artworks (illustrations, competitions, posters) and is actively involved in elective activities such as the Art Workshop and the school exhibition space, Avla.
She has participated in several group exhibitions at Avla, and a solo exhibition is planned for the next school year. She works in various techniques, including acrylic, watercolor, oil, graphite, charcoal, photography, and sculpture. She is also the recipient of the first prize at the school’s Prešeren Competition in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Vinko Bogataj, (Slovenija born 1948)
The oldest participant of the 58th Meeting was born in Brezovica near Kropa. He has been painting since childhood, although he has never received formal education in this field. During his teenage years, he discovered a passion for ski jumping and later competed for several years as a member of the national team. During his sports career, he temporarily set painting aside.
After retiring from professional sports, he dedicated himself more seriously to painting, participating in various plein air events and art colonies, where he gained valuable experience and knowledge. In 2006, he was invited to Pittsburgh, USA, where he exhibited his works.
He concluded his professional career as an independent entrepreneur in the transport industry.
