Nataša Tajnik Stupar (1974, Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia) is a painter, artist and art educator. After graduating from Velenje Grammar School, she studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Ljubljana, where she graduated in 1999 under Professor Gustav Gnamuš and Professor Jože Muhovič, PhD. In 2002, she completed her master’s degree at the same institution.
Since 2001, she has been a member of the Association of Slovene Fine Artists and the Celje Fine Artists Association, and since 2016, of the Ljubljana Fine Artists Association. Since 2002, she has worked as a self-employed cultural professional and art educator. She teaches at the Visual Arts Programme of the Art Grammar School at the Velenje School Centre, where she combines her artistic and pedagogical practice with research into contemporary approaches to art education. She also participates in curricular working groups responsible for developing curricula and contemporary guidelines for art education in Slovenia.
Her artistic practice focuses primarily on traditional painting, with particular emphasis on drawing as an independent and autonomous visual medium. Her work is characterised by close observation, an exploration of materiality, and a considered approach to space, landscape and human presence within it. An important part of her artistic research involves the study of traditional and sustainable art materials and techniques. Her work frequently explores the possibilities of natural pigments, lime-based binders, fresco techniques, ceramics and other materials with a long history of use in the visual arts. She is particularly interested in the relationships between materiality, time, processes of ageing and the durability of artworks, giving her practice a distinctly research-based and interdisciplinary dimension.
She has received several awards and distinctions for her work. Her artworks are held in numerous public and private collections in Slovenia. To date, she has held 38 solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. She regularly takes part in art colonies and other professional artistic projects.
She lives and works in Velenje, Slovenia.
