One of Ljubljana's most important galleries launched an exhibition at the end of last year on the Slovenian painter and illustrator Jože Ciuha. Turning 90 this April, Ciuha was actively present in the preparation of the exhibit and picked some of the highlights of his creative life: paintings, sketches and printings.

Ciuha was born in Trbovlje and studied painting in Ljubljana. His lifetime work was later heavily influenced by his studies of buddhistic culture and philosophy in Myanmar. He also wrote books about his extensive journeys in Asia and America.

The artist started his carrier as an illustrator, but is best known for his paintings and prints into which he has managed to transpose his vision as a painter. In order for this vision to emerge, it was necessary that the artist had first gained fame as an illustrator and then, from the 1960s on, had asserted himself as a drawer creating a series of travel drawings.

By reviewing the past and looking back to the early beginnings, with its radical selection the exhibition aims to shed light on certain aspects and circumstances that have affected the reception of Ciuha's body of work; highlight its peaks; contemplate the cycles of motifs and forms and round them off; and reminisce about the author's experience of the second half of the 20th century.

The exhibition "Jože Ciuha: The Labyrinth of Time" will be on display until 13th April and will be accompanied by guided tours, lectures, painting workshops, a poetry reading, a chat with the artist, and programmes for families and schools.