Stano Filko Slovakian, 1937-2015

Filko (b. 1937 Veľká Hradná - d. 2015 Bratislava, Slovakia) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava and attracted attention in the 1960s with a series of international exhibitions, including shows in Cologne and Paris in 1968 and was one of the few Czech and Slovak artists invited to participate in documenta 7 in Kassel, in 1982.

Belonging to one of the most radical avant-garde Slovak art scenes who pioneered the use of the environment and installation, happenings and events, his broad oeuvre reflected all the major contemporary trends, including Pop Art, Neo-realism, Fluxus, and Conceptual art. Influenced by wide ranging subjects such as modernist architecture, mathematical algorithms and the cosmos, they are both the subject and the medium of Filko’s paintings, collages, and assemblages.

His highly acclaimed Altar assemblages created between 1964 – 1965, use imagery expressing lust for power and sexual desire. Another series of work; the Bombs; realistic sculptures painted a variety of unrealistic colours such as pink and red, reflect candidly the concern of war. In between 1965 and 1970, inspired by Marcel Duchamp he created prolific collections of prints, film, happenings, objects, manifestos and documentation. Appropriating maps as ready-made canvases and creating work influenced by Concrete and Constructivist artists his intricate visual systems created diagrams from everyday objects that were rich in symbolic meaning.