Lauba proudly presents the exhibition of the graphics portfolio ‘’Factory Mornings’’ by Milan Trenc.

The opening will take place on the 15th of December at 8PM and will follow all pandemic safety regulations.

Through his collection of graphics ‘’Factory Mornings’’, Trenc attempts to analyse the relationship between two simultaneously famed and criticised artistic styles of the 20th century; pop-art and social realism. Using style as an excuse to keep exploring this collection of works represents a shift from Trenc’s usual means of creating which include video, film and digital print as he explores the technique of screen printing as the origin point of the comic ‘’Maljčiki’’ (Studentski List, 1981.) that was inspired by the hit single by the band Idoli from Beograd.

On the subject matter plan, represented ideas mythologise the everyday life of social realism as the official myth of the ‘’socially empowered’’ working class through the lens of the consumerist paradigm of the capitalist ethos creating an amalgam of absurdity that put the viewer in the position of a confused consumer that is forced to decipher and break down symbols and visual signals through the visual transformation of pop-art and through this breaking down, view them as elements of manipulation that are present in both genres and beyond in the context of agreed upon stylistic features.

High aestheticization of Trenc’s work that is consistent throughout all phases of his versatile and rich opus is also evident in this universe and the use of his colour scheme and solid lines breathes an aesthetic quality to the pieces that goes beyond the ephemeral causeur nature of the project.

Milan Trenc (1962) works in animation, comics, illustration, film and television directing and writing and screenwriting. He majored in film direction at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in the class of professor Krešo Golik. In the early 80s, alongside his film studies, he starts publishing comics in magazines Polet and Studentski List. From 1985 until their end he acted as the main illustrator for the magazine Start. From 1991 until 2004 he resides in New York where he publishes comics in Heavy Metal Magazine, and his illustrations appear in The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, Fortune Magazine, Washington Post, Business Week and other more prominent American publications. For his illustrations that appeared in The New York Times he was awarded by Print magazine (1993) and Society of Publication Designers (2003).

In 1993, he wrote and illustrated A Night at the Museum, a children’s book that was adapted into the eponymous Hollywood movie produced by 20th Century Fox (2006).

He takes part in group shows at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Art in General, New York and Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Los Angeles. He has had his solo exhibitions shown in Klovićevi Dvori Gallery (2007), Nova Gallery (2008), MUO (2017), Forum Gallery (2019).

He is a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.

The graphics portfolio Factory Mornings by Milan Trenc was published by the National and University Library in Zagreb with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia as part of the program A year of Reading and the Adris foundation.

The publication’s editor is the senior curator of the Graphics Collection of the National and University Library in Zagreb Charlotte Marie Frank.