Ljubljana - The staff at Moderna Galerija, the national museum of modern art, have distanced themselves from an exhibition of contemporary Slovenian painters by visiting curator Andrej Medved, which opened last week, arguing it brings an unacceptable practice of presenting and interpreting art while also being gender-biased.

They take issue above all with the way artists and their works are presented in the Momental-Mente: Vivid Paintings exhibition, which features the most recent works by eight women and nine men painters at the peak of their creativity.

The exhibition includes captions such as Romantic Čepin, Wondrous Jakša or Blossoming and Eternally Young Joni, a commodifying and reductive practice to be opposed by any serious museum.

"The practice of mediating art in a modern museum and in contemporary time has overcome such simplified, one-dimensional, and condescending... reductions of paintings to a supposedly light and playful, but actually banal adjective."

The museum's experts say in their letter distributed to the media that such presentations are common in marketing, commodifying authors and their work.

They argue that "such simplistic interpretations of modern artistic practices" take art back into "the conservative field of private pleasure and limit its broader cultural and general social relevance".

Moreover, the descriptions are discriminatory based on gender, as first names are used for women painters (Nika's Deep Blue or Inventive Suzana), while men are presented with their last names ((Un)Repeatable A. Kobal or Sculptural Lozar).

They believe such presentations are completely unacceptable and discriminatory. Museums must be a place of inclusion and equality and cannot afford such thoughtless moves revealing complete insensitivity to social issues.

The authors of the letter also take issue with the curator's criticism of Modern Galerija, in which he is a guest. The text accompanying the exhibition claims that Modern Galerija is to blame for decades-long suppression of painting in Slovenia after WWII.

The museum staff does not take issue with the selection of artists, as curators are autonomous in their work, but complains of not having been involved in the exhibition in any way and could only see it when it opened on Thursday.

Moreover, the letter says that they opposed the exhibition being included in Moderna Galerija's programme.

Responding to the criticism for the STA, curator Medved said the descriptions had already been removed because of complaints by some of the male artists.

He also said they were not condescending or banal, he only wanted to make them playful, which is not a common practice in serious exhibitions.

"This playfulness included the names of painters, but there was no pretentiousness or intentional choice with regards to sex. It was pure wordplay," said Medved, who is also a poet.

The curator said he would like to see the museum's staff present a proper expert opinion on the show rather than just criticising it.

He said that the claims that Moderna Galerija had not exhibited contemporary painters, barring few exceptions, were a fact.

A response also came from the museum's director Aleš Vaupotič, who admitted there had been a lot of opposition to the show yet "without any reasonable arguments".

He attributed the staff not having been acquainted with the exhibition to their attitude to work and the employer, adding they did not attended Thursday's opening either. What worries Vaupotič is that they opted to present their grievances to the public instead of "within the house".

Ira Marušič, one of the participating artists, told the STA she felt respected and equal to all the other participating painters. She sees the curator's choice of first names for the women painters as an expression of their long-standing friendship and affection.

"The curator has dedicated the main wall in Moderna Galerija to a female painter, Nika Zupančič, and I believe this is also a way of demonstrating the affection and equality of women," she said.