Painter, printmaker and musician Sašo Vrabič has printed an extensive series of prints entitled New Plate in the MGLC Print Studio. This conceptually conceived series unites the artist’s interest for imaginative creating and interweaving of pictorial language, sonic/musical expression and visual poetry. All of this is reflected in the witty titles of the prints, fleeting thoughts and selected words through which he quite literally draws and paints his images. Through its title, New Plate, the series handily evokes an association between the good old vinyl record and the graphic matrix, often also known as a printing plate. The entire series of prints is produced on 31 x 31 cm paper, matching the size of a record sleeve, which has long been regarded as the carrier of the visual message accompanying recorded music. An intriguing starting point is Vrabič’s decision to recycle old prints, cut them into a new format and print new images on them. The prints complement each other in much the same way as new music samples are created from old songs.

Many of the images were created in the MGLC Print Studio. The entire series comprises 159 graphic prints, produced in the screenprinting technique. Twelve of these are printed in black on white paper as an indivisible whole, and can be interpreted as a print portfolio or, in the context of a new plate, even a visual album. The titles of the individual prints in this album inspired Vrabič to prepare and compose 12 more original songs with recordings from his home studio, sounds from the MGLC Print Studio and audio material from certain public spaces, such as the railway station in Ljubljana. He skilfully arranged the compositions and devised the listening order on sides A and B of his first solo vinyl record entitled New Plate, which was released in a limited edition of 55 copies to accompany the exhibition.

The concept and layout of the exhibition stem from Vrabič’s wish to interweave the creative possibilities and narrative starting points of different mediums, and is divided into two spaces, similarly to how a record is arranged into Side A and Side B. The exhibition begins with a video showing a spinning record. The sound unobtrusively fills the space and accompanies us throughout our viewing of the series of monochrome prints from the print portfolio. Upon entering the second space, we f irst catch sight of a video showing the other side of his record. The music in the second space also accompanies the viewing of a series of graphic variations, whose basic images are derived from the aforementioned images in the print portfolio. Vrabič accompanied the visual interpretation of the second side of the album by conceiving the gallery space as a unified whole, covering its walls with drawn and painted motifs that we can find as the base in his series of graphic variations and at the same time constitute a new interpretation of the compositions in formal, painterly and drawing terms.

New Plate is a conceptually conceived project, bringing together printmaking in a print studio, the creation and release of a music album and an exhibition. It developed and evolved organically, but thoughtfully and gradually. The printmaking process inspired the musical composition and album release, while the images and sound served as the starting point for setting up the exhibition. It is important to note that no element of the project ultimately prevailed or became more important than any other. With assurance and parity, Vrabič brings all the elements together into a whole, ensuring that music is not merely a sonic accompaniment and printmaking is not merely an illustration on the cover, but positioning them as two equivalent mediums where structure, rhythm, layering and repetition play a significant role. The exhibition New Plate allows the listener to observe and see sound, while enabling the viewer to hear the graphic prints. Twelve screenprints, united in an indivisible print portfolio, and twelve instrumental compositions, released as a music album, form two equivalent materialisations of the same artistic idea. Consequently, the print portfolio and the music album do not illustrate or accompany each other, but function as visual and audio records of an identical structure, in which the title, format and sequence take on the role of a shared connecting language.

Curator of the exhibition: Božidar Zrinski

The Vinyl Record New Plate

was produced alongside the eponymous series of screenprints created in the MGLC Print Studio. The sound recordings were made over several years and are titled after the twelve motifs in the series. At the forefront, as a base, are the sounds of various pianos and other keyboard instruments. These are complemented on the album by repetitive rhythmic patterning, looping and the use of field recordings combined with subsequent studio material captured on various sound-recording devices, such as a mobile phone and a tape player. In places, they are joined by guitar riffs, funky bass lines and rare but meaningful guest appearances by other collaborators – Vrabič’s daughter on viola and his son on guitar and drums, as well as the master printmaker with the sampled sounds from the print studio where the screenprints were created. Repetition is an essential sound element on the album, interlinking the visual repetition of the words from which the mimetic images in the graphic prints are composed.

Released by: International Centre for Graphic Arts (MGLC), Ljubljana, 2026

Vinyl record production: XV. Obzorje, Idrija

Edition: 55 copies

Sašo Vrabič (1974, Slovenj Gradec)

Sašo Vrabič studied Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana, graduating in 1997 in the class of Prof. Andrej Jemec and completing his master’s degree in 2001 under the supervision of Prof. Lojze Logar. He works in painting as well as other forms of visual art. He has received several awards and recognitions for his work, including the Prešeren Student Award (1998) and the Berneker Award (2004), and was nominated for the OHO Group Award in 2009. Vrabič has presented his work in 50 solo and over 200 group exhibitions and has exhibited in 35 countries. At the International Centre of Graphic Arts, he participated in three editions of the International Biennale of Graphic Arts: the 24th International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Print World exhibition (2001); the 26th International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Thrust, and the accompanying exhibitions The Most Beautiful Prints and The First Line (2005); and the 27th International Biennial of Graphic Arts, The Unbound Eyes of Anxiousness, as well as a number of exhibitions: Young Slovenian Printmakers (1998), Alluring (2001) and We Want to Be Free as the Fathers Were (2010). His works are included in both national and international collections. Music is an important aspect of his art practice. He is known as a singer (one of the pioneers of beatboxing, or vocal rhythmic performance, in Slovenia) and as the author of several original musical works for museum and gallery installations, dance and theatre productions, television programmes and film. He lives and works in Ljubljana.

Sašo Vrabič, More, from the series New Plate, 2024.

Sašo Vrabič, Quiet, Variation 8, from the series New Plate, 2024.