Ljubljana - Slovenian museums and galleries are looking at an eventful 2022. Exhibitions exploring pandemic creativity and the Yugoslav avant-garde, and shows honouring the oeuvre of Impressionist painter Matej Sternen and accomplishments by Slovenian women artists of the past three decades, are among the highlights.

In the first half of 2022, the Museum of Modern Art will put on a show about contemporary Slovenian painting to display works made since the beginning of the pandemic. The exhibition will aim to determine what kind of an impact this short but dramatic period has had on Slovenian painters.

In the summer, the museum will present works from the Art Collection Telekom, a collection held by Germany's telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom. The exhibit will feature works by artists from South-East Europe.

Tribute will be also paid to Slovenian painter and art critic Marjan Tršar (1922-2010) on the occasion of his 100th birth anniversary.

The museum's offshoot at the Metelkova alternative arts centre, the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM), will showcase in March an exhibition by artist and filmmaker Nika Autor, who represented Slovenia at the 2018 Venice Biennale and whose work has been revolving around migration in recent years.

In March, the museum will also open an exhibition focussing on the Otolith Group, an artist-led collective and organisation founded by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun in 2002 that combined film and video production with curating, programming, and writing.

A display dedicated to the Yugoslav avant-garde will be on in the second half of the year, focussing on the crossroads between utopia and independent organisations and presenting different forms of the concept of artwork in terms of production and content from the post-war avant-gardes, through the 1990s and up to the present day.

A show called Surfing with Satoshi, which will explore links between art and digital technologies against the backdrop of the Non-Fungible Token market, will open in the summer.

An eventful year is also in store for the National Gallery, where they plan to expand presentations of selected authors whose works are in their collections.

Come summer, the museum will showcase works by little-known painter Elda Piščanec (1897-1967), who studied in Italy and France. After returning home, she helped pave the way for women artists and advocated for women to be able to choose their own paths in life.

The central exhibition of 2022 at the National Gallery will be dedicated to impressionist painter Matej Sternen (1870-1949), considered to be the most single-minded artist among Slovenians Impressionists.

Sternen was inspired by both French painters as well as the great names of Central Europe. In recent years a number of his previously unknown works have been discovered, according to the museum. The display will open in the autumn to highlight not only his paintings but also his photographic oeuvre.

Intertwining poetry and painting, the museum will showcase an exhibition based on works by painter Metka Krašovec (1941-2018) and poet Tomaž Šalamun (1941-2014), who were a famous couple of the Slovenian literary-arts scene.

The National Museum of Slovenia will devote the next year to the archaeological landscape in the Danube region.

Visitors will be able to explore the area's archaeological heritage through virtual reality. Using VR goggles, they will be transported to a Neanderthal dwelling, a Bronze Age funeral ritual, an Iron Age forge, or a Roman villa.

The Museum of Recent History will open an exhibition honouring Slovenian athletes and their feats in September, after its current display, dedicated to migrants from the former Yugoslav countries, ends.

The sports exhibition will also mark the 30th anniversary of Slovenia's first appearance at the Olympic Games.

A number of other displays will mark the coming year at the museum, including an exhibition on men and women deported to the death camp Auschwitz and a show celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of celebrated architect Jože Plečnik (1872-1957).

In light of the anniversary, Plečnik will be also in focus of the main 2022 exhibition in the City Museum of Ljubljana that will aim to illuminate his architectural oeuvre and reveal and reflect on the many innovative ideas and techniques that the versatile artist used in his designs.

The City Art Gallery Ljubljana will display a private collection by Austrian contemporary art collector Ernst Hilger, which comprises works by more than 400 artists.

An extensive display of more than 50 women artists who have left an indelible mark on the Slovenian arts scene since the 1990s will be meanwhile put on at Cukrarna, the city's newest exhibition venue.