STANO GREŽĎO: IN BLACK ON WHITE

NOVEMBER 10 – DECEMBER 9, 2023 at ARTA, Piešťany, Slovakia

The exhibition “In Black on White” focuses on the DIY scene in the 80s and 90s in West Slovakia from the point of view of artist Stano Grežďo. The exhibition features his drawings, including flyers, posters, and music cassette covers. The show is also complemented by photos from this period. This scene was built with the DIY ethos. Bands and people around them organized concerts, recorded demo tapes, printed t-shirts, wrote zines, drew posters, held exhibitions, and even had their own distribution of these products.

The exhibition begins chronologically in the 80s when two teenagers started publishing their own metal magazine “ACCETON”, a hand-drawn notebook that contained drawings and clippings from music magazines. The second part begins in the early 90s when these two friends met again and started the punk band “SZM”. During this time Grezdo was working in a print shop, and the exhibition presents concert posters that he printed for the local punk scene. It is an example of youth rebellion, ingenuity, and the artistic world of Stano Grežďo, chronicling a time that prevailed in the 1980s and 90s in Slovakia.

Výstava “Čierne na bielom” sa zameriava na subkultúru a DIY scénu 80-tych a 90-tych rokov na území západného Slovenska z pohľadu autora Stana Grežďa. Približuje autorove kresby vrátane letákov, plagátov, obalov magnetofónových kaziet a tiež archívnych osobných fotografií, ktoré zachytávajú atmosféru tejto doby. Spomínaná scéna bola postavená na etike DIY (urob si sám). Kapely a ľudia okolo nich organizovali koncerty, nahrávali demokazety, tlačili tričká, písali ziny, kreslili plagáty, robili výstavy a dokonca mali aj vlastnú distribúciu týchto produktov.

Výstava je radená chronologicky. Začína v 80. rokoch, kedy dvaja “teenageri” vydávajú vlastný metalový časopis “ACCETON”, ručne kreslený zošit pozostávajúci z kresieb a výstrižkov z hudobných časopisov. Pokračuje 90. rokmi, kedy sa títo priatelia opäť stretávajú a zakladajú punkovú kapelu. Výstava je doplnená o množstvo plagátov z koncertov punkovej scény v Piešťanoch a okolí, ktoré tlačil samotný autor v tlačiarňach, v ktorých v tej dobe pracoval. Je ukážkou mládežníckej rebélie, vynaliezavosti, umeleckého sveta Stana Grežďa a zároveň kronikou doby, ktorá panovala v 80.- 90. rokoch na Slovensku.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stano Grezdo was born in 1972 in Piešťany, Slovakia. Between the years of 1986 – 1991 he attended The Graphic School of Bratislava, where he studied theory and the praxis of printing, the history of printing, graphic design, bookmaking, and typesetting. After his studies, already fully immersed in the punk movement, he returned to his hometown where he started to work as a printing press operator. He played in several bands while printing and designing posters for various cultural activities. Grezdo also had many underground exhibitions, especially during various punk festivals.

In 1998 Grezdo visited the US. After a one-year stay in New Orleans, he settled in Austin Texas, where he continued his activities as a DJ with the pirate radio stations “Free Radio Austin” and “KAOS RADIO”. The music programs focused on the underground music scenes in Post-Soviet Block countries. He was also active in the local art scene and held several exhibitions in various alternative galleries.

In 2006 he moved to Chicago. From 2007 to 2017 Grezdo was the curator of Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) in Chicago, where he curated or co-curated over 60 exhibitions. He also cooperated with countless Chicago organizations, artists and other curators. He worked with such institutions as Ukrainian Museum in New York; Ukrainian Institute of America in New York; Polish Museum of America in Chicago; South Asia Institute in Chicago; National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture in Chicago; Bauhaus Chicago Foundation in Chicago. The outsider art communities around Chicago were also very influential to him, including Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and Project Onward, an organization that promotes artists with developmental disabilities and/or mental illness.

In 2018 he founded the One After 909 gallery in Chicago. After the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 and the closure of its physical space, the gallery has refocused on project-based exhibitions in diverse locations.

Grezdo currently resides between the USA and Europe.

Stano Grežďo sa narodil v roku 1972 v Piešťanoch. V rokoch 1986 – 1991 navštevoval Polygrafickú školu v Bratislave, kde študoval teóriu a prax polygrafie, dejiny tlače, grafický dizajn, kníhviazačstvo a sadzbu. Po štúdiu, už plne zapojený do punkového hnutia, sa vrátil do rodného mesta, kde začal pracovať ako tlačiar v Západoslovenských Tlačiarnach. Hral vo viacerých kapelách a tiež tlačil a navrhoval plagáty na rôzne kultúrne aktivity. Grežďo mal aj niekoľko undergroundových výstav, najmä počas rôznych punkových festivalov.

V roku 1998 Grežďo navštívil USA. Po ročnom pobyte v New Orleans sa usadil v Austine v Texase, kde pokračoval vo svojich aktivitách ako DJ v pirátskych rádiach “Free Radio Austin” a “KAOS RADIO”. Jeho hudobné programy sa zameriavali na undergroundové hudobné scény v krajinách post-sovietskeho bloku. V Austine uskutočnil aj niekoľko výstav v rôznych alternatívnych galériách.

V roku 2006 sa presťahoval do Chicaga. V rokoch 2007 až 2017 bol Grežďo kurátorom Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) v Chicagu, kde bol kurátorom alebo spolukurátorom viac ako 60 výstav. Spolupracoval aj s nespočetnými chicagskými organizáciami, umelcami a inými kurátormi. Spolupracoval s inštitúciami ako Ukrainian Museum v New Yorku; Ukrainian Institute of America v New Yorku; Polish Museum of America v Chicagu; South Asia Institute v Chicagu; National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture v Chicagu; Bauhaus Chicago Foundation v Chicagu. V Chicagu ho ovplyvnila spolupráca s “outsider art” organizáciami, vrátane Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art a Project Onward, organizácia, ktorá podporuje umelcov s vývojovými poruchami alebo duševnými chorobami.

V roku 2018 založil galériu One After 909 v Chicagu. Po začatí pandémie Covid-19 v roku 2020 a uzavretí fyzického priestoru sa galéria preorientovala na projektové výstavy v rôznych lokalitách.

Grežďo v súčasnosti žije striedavo medzi USA a Európou.