Mestna galerija Piran

Mara Ambrožič Verderber is an internationally recognized expert in the field of establishing cultural and artistic institutions in the field of contemporary art, curator and art critic. Primorka, who gained her experience in the field of contemporary art in Europe, England, Africa, the USA and Canada. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, she completed her master's degree at the Venice University of Architecture, at the International Faculty of Art and Design, and in recent years she was awarded a scholarship at the renowned British university LJMU-School of Art and Design in Liverpool, where she is completing her PhD dissertation.

Over the past twenty years, she has participated in numerous international exhibition, art, music and editorial projects. As a leader, she worked in or participated in more than 15 international art organizations, museum institutions, academic platforms and networks. Among others, she led the five-year public program Ateliers (gallery of the city of Venice Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa) and the public-private international program Art Enclosures (foundation and collection Fondazione di Venezia, 2008-2013, Marsilio Editore, Venice, 2012). In 2015, she joined the NSK organization as a
manager and developed the strategy of the "NSK Country Pavilion" and its implementation. In recent years, she has also worked as a curator of various projects in collaboration with internationally renowned artists and experts, such as the Slovenian pavilion with Tobias Putrih at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2017, which she curated with
Francesco Manacorda. As a researcher and curator, she was also responsible for curating the material for the first historical reconstruction of the large-scale exhibition "Musee d'Art Moderne – Section des Figures (1972)", dedicated to the Belgian artist and pioneer of institutional criticism Marcel Broodthaers (Monnaie de Paris, February - May 2015 ). Together with prof. Between 2007 and 2012, Mara Ambrožič Verderber taught Marta Kuzma, dean of the School of Art at the eminent Yale University in the USA, as an associate professor at the Faculty of Art and Design IUAV in Venice, "Theory of Art and Criticism of the Culture Industry". As a guest lecturer, she collaborated with the Institute for Political Studies of Sciences Po, a prestigious university in Paris, within the School of Communication.

In the last decade, she has published essays and academic articles in Italian, French and English. Some articles have also been translated into German, Polish and Portuguese. In the last decade, she has edited and co-created many books published by international publishing houses. Since 2013, she has also been a member of the editorial board of the Archive Books publishing house in Berlin.

The coastal galleries of Piran keep various art collections, which represent Slovenian and foreign creativity of modern and contemporary art, with an emphasis on the artists of Primorska. At first, the collections were created as a result of the institution's exhibition activity, but gradually the unplanned acquisition of material grew into a deliberate collection policy. A vision was formed in which we recognize the set program direction of the gallery, with the help of which the collection is continuously and qualitatively upgraded. The collection of Contemporary Slovenian Fine Arts after 1976 is the result of the galleries' intensive exhibition activity and the associated collection of works by key artists who marked the period of the 1970s and 1980s in Slovenian contemporary art . It was designed by the then gallery curator Andrej Medved. The high-quality core of the collection is represented by works related to the emergence of a new image, as it was the Coastal Galleries of Piran that were an important center of the new wave. It is a representative museum collection, which, in terms of the quality of the individual works, is comparable to the permanent collections in the central galleries of modern art in Slovenia. In recent years, it is the international openness of the operation that has indicated the possibilities for expanding and enriching the artistic fund of the coastal institution with donations from abroad.

In recent years, it is the international openness of the operation that has indicated the possibilities for expanding and enriching the artistic fund of the coastal institution with donations from abroad. Such is the international collection of Francesco Conz's Avant-garde Laboratories , which consists of donated works of art from a foreign collector, which consists of donated works of art from a foreign collector. There are not many museums in the world that store works of the international Fluxus art movement (Vienna, Stuttgart, Los Angeles, London, New York, Zagreb). Among others, the collection of Primorski fine artists also stands out . It consists of selected works by authors whose creativity is linked to the area of South Primorska. The basis for the collection is the program direction of the institution, which in previous years has presented important coastal artists with comprehensive overview and retrospective exhibitions. Since the collected fund does not yet represent a suitable basis for a permanent establishment, the club, in accordance with the established collection policy, is continuously replenishing the material, also with a view to future public presentation. The coastal galleries of Piran also manage the donation of the Piran painter Herman Pečarič, the Herman Pečarič Collection , and the international collection of stone sculptures FORMA VIVA PORTOROŽ . Except for the last two, all other works of art have been deposited.