Valentin Oman – Untitled 2

He was born in 1935 in St. Stefan near Villach (Austria). He graduated in painting in the class of Hilde Schmid-Jesser at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna in 1962. He specialized in graphics with Prof. Rik Debeljak at the Academy in Ljubljana. In the 1960s, he was interested in the reality of the outside world, the individual confronted with the forces of the world trying to destroy personality. In the 1970s, he created a series of frescoes (particularly significant are the frescoes in Klagenfurt, Slovenska Gimnazija) and numerous works in sanctuaries (Kriva Vrba, altar decoration in Plešivec). In the early 1980s, he increasingly explored color through mural painting. In the early 1990s, he created a cycle of wall paintings in the parish church of St. Jacob, which the author himself called The Way of the Cross of Mankind.

Despite constant changes, the coherence of his work and social engagement remains, which is particularly evident from the Paris cycle in the early 1990s titled Paris Requiem created during the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. His social engagement is continuous. He works among the Slovenian minority in Carinthia. In 1964, he won 1st prize at the Ex tempore in Piran. He has exhibited both solo and group shows in prestigious gallery spaces and has won significant awards (Frechen, 1972 and 1974, San Francisco Special Purchase Award, 1971, Prešeren Award, 1980, Jakopič Award, 1995). The University of Klagenfurt awarded him an honorary doctorate honoris causa. His works are located in public and private institutions, galleries, and museums (including the famous Albertina in Vienna). He lives and works in Vienna and Finkenstein, Carinthia.