David Kucler presents a series of his latest works at MGLC, which have been especially commissioned for the exhibition and are being shown to the public for the first time. The title of the exhibition ensues from a former section of Naš dom magazine, which reported on the (tested) quality of household appliances and kitchen utensils in the 1970s. Kucler extends the testing results in his works to examine the potentials and possibilities of the medium of painting itself, as well as to question the boundaries between representation and abstraction. All the works were created after careful consideration and planning, and were each realised in their own medium, including the fusion of classical oil painting with the silkscreen printmaking technique. The works depict everyday situations, excelled by a subtle sense of humour and an aptitude for merging different visual models into new contextual and visual concepts. They can be viewed as a coherent whole or as individual pieces. Kucler transforms found visual starting points into contemporary rebuses with a touch of nostalgia for a particular environment, domesticity, visuality and objects that once characterised our everyday life, home, city, nature. He draws mainly from magazine and newspaper visuals and the painting of the 1970s, which introduced new products and materials into the everyday, depicted technological and social developments and tested all kinds of devices for daily life. The starting point of his artistic deed also comes from the technique and colourfulness of Polaroid photography, in which he focuses not only on the photographed motif but above all on the light effects, which he wants to experience and test anew in the technique of oil on canvas. The paintings First Wedding and 76 are not about a classical tracing of the photographed motif, but about testing its narrativity in a different medium. The prints Red Chair and Orange Chair are particularly impressive in this context. This nostalgic look at the design reality of a particular time is not just a reproduced image of an object, but the softness of the material and the lines of the armchair design are revealed to us through the precise and thoughtful framing of the motif, the cropping and the silkscreen printmaking technique of the CMYK colour raster. The optical diversity is also heightened by printing on soft felt. The comparison with the Orange Chair printed on paper reveals the artist's wish to waiver on the boundary between the real and the abstract with the representation of the image, which of course depends on the understanding of the framing observed. The associative casualness, the conceptual stance of building up the image through the accumulation and layering of information, the humour and the fusion of the printmaking technique of silkscreen with complementary acrylic painting and coloured pencil drawing are the hallmarks of the works Beep! and Produktion. Both works represent Kucler's understanding of the usefulness and importance of a particular technique to achieve the desired effect of the artwork.

Testing Results demonstrate a considered approach, knowledge of the technical possibilities of each medium and an accurate prediction of the outcome of their fusion. In his works, Kucler essentially tests whether the creative process itself is at all suitable for his expectations and creative ambitions. The success of this testing can be seen in the fact that all the planned works have achieved a quality that reveals Kucler's skilful interplay of various techniques and use of different materials. The exhibition presents the view of a young artist who is aware that he can shatter many creative illusions with self-criticism, work ethic and persistence.

Božidar Zrinski

David Kucler (1994) works in painting and printmaking. He graduated in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 2021 and received the Academy Award for Special Artistic Achievements. He is currently continuing his studies on the master's programme in Painting at the Academy. In 2022, he presented his work in the group exhibition Prints and Impressions 2 at the International Centre of Graphic Arts and this year, together with Petja Kocet, in the solo exhibition Meadow at Kino Šiška. He has also shown his work several times at the DobraVaga gallery.