Projectories scenes thus represent an abstraction of current events. Due to the constant strong stimuli of pictorial content, promoted by print and digital media and summarized in the mass media, the viewing of works must evoke in the viewer clear pictorial connections related to current events. For this purpose, the artist uses a well-thought-out structured choreography, which wants to use the painter’s approaches to prepare the viewer to question the set of images provided to us by the canvases. Uroš Weinberger is a visionary artist who painted people with protective gas masks before 2010 and drew attention to the toxic world; not only to the catastrophic consequences of climate change and the reckless rape of natural resources but also to the endless masses of lies, confusion, ambiguity within which we just find ourselves. Until recently, his paintings acted as science fiction of a world catastrophe, which has become a reality today. The author strives to give the viewer/observer a feeling as if they are watching something that exists. Something that may not be (yet) realistic, but is depicted in such a realistic way that it repeatedly shifts the observer into a ”created” painterly reality, reminding him that beyond his perception a real coup d’etat of everyday life is happening. Uroš Weinberger’s colour palette is confirmed by the fact that his current painting interpretation is systematically moving away from the concept and seeks to move markedly closer to the formative content, which requires the artist to further metapsychological concentration and critical reflection on the importance of the image, which takes away the baton of conceptual reformation and the dismantling of reality at the expense of the narrative of the content of the work of art. The translucency of Weinberger’s painting captures the viewer’s gaze and shifts him into a megalomaniacal space of all-encompassing pleasure – let’s call it Las Vegas Syndrome – by confronting him with a dazzling, neon-glowing, neoliberal position of world ethos: public attention has long been guided by ruling hierarchies, which in the flood of interdisciplinary technological and technical solutions, they perceived their opportunity to fully master the individuality, originality and plurality of the audience, thus maintaining the Australopithecus primacy of political ambitions, which – what is true, is true – they got used to.
Nina Jeza, Artists&Poor’s (Uroš Weinberger: Projectories, Nova Gorica City Gallery, Slovenia, 9.4. – 30.4.2021; Ptuj City Gallery, Slovenia, 1.6. – 4.7.2021)

In his monumental paintings, Uroš Weinberger creates worlds of a dystopian future. He combines digital images from all manner of sources into collages whose details point to our present-day reality, but a reality irradiated with an over-bright light almost to the point of unrecognizability, which makes it somehow more real than reality. Traditionally, in modern ideology, technology is seen as a bearer of progress and of liberation (from manual labor, for example). In Weinberger’s work, it is cast in a darker role, becoming the instrument of surveillance and control, and of infringements and loss of liberty, locking civilization in a vicious circle of self-destruction.

Martina Vovk, PhD (Time Without Innocence. Recent Painting in Slovenia, Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 31.1. – 31.3.2019)

For Uroš Weinberger, the painting is a medium through which (despite spatial limitations) a narrative unfolds, which indirectly expresses a construction of his own social scripts. The figures are reminiscent of images which draw on the history of heroic painting. Most of the time, they are set in a cold, technicist architectural landscape or lost in a crowd of perpetuated images, where we get a sense of the acceleration of the entrapment in a manipulative ideological machine. Spatial overcrowding, which can be perceived in various paintings, alludes to the entrapment of the subject inside the system, who is subjected to incessant control and fear. Big capital, which benefits from the results of progressive technologies, is a colonizer of subjectivities, culture and our lives. Technology and capital are entering our intimate spaces; under pretence that they are the only ones that can transmit the truth of life, they are directing us or manipulating our lives. Uroš Weinberger’s paintings are realistic narratives of the future into which the deepest social fears are projected.
This is the matrix for the view into the future. The matrix of Uroš’s painting images similarly builds on the historical memory of the known past of totalitarian regimes, the awareness of the present and the synthesis of both into a dystopian future.

Jadranka Plut (Uroš Weinberger: XI. (retrospective exhibition), Alkatraz Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 10.9. – 4.10.2018)

Although Uroš Weinberger’s paintings often act as futuristic science fiction scenarios that are just about to happen, they are permeated by historical memory. The latter often refers to the failed utopian totalitarian projects of the past century, which latently address us with the traces of the post-war East German aesthetics, the elements of industrial architectures and an optimistic crowd firmly oriented into the future, which could be illustrated with the title of Zamjatin’s prognostic anti-utopian novel We, in which the writer a century ago satirically described harmonious conformism in the new political religion and socialist society. Right at the point of this allegorical parallel between the experience of the past and the present situation, history is important for Weinberger. His paintings are dystopian images of the modern society, saturated with social contradictions and injustices, social tensions, violence and encroaching on freedom under the slogan of free choice and open possibilities. Stephen Duncombe described dystopia as revealing the hidden logic of that which already is, since it shows the world in which nobody wants to believe anymore. Weinberger’s canvases also depict this form of dystopia, which presents itself as a disillusionment after the end of utopian dreams and vanishes in wars, economic crises and the dangers of an environmental catastrophe. The post-historic pastiche in Weinberger’s paintings unconcernedly coplaces historical figures, references and pictorial provenances: from old photos, posters to current online images. What is important is their emblematic and allusive form, which recycles the past in order to actualize it in a new context and to establish a link between the present and history through visual contact.

Nadja Gnamuš, PhD (Suzana Brborović & Uroš Weinberger: The Matrix, DLUL Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 4.7. – 29.7.2018)

The die Drohnen exhibition presents the latest work by social critic, painter, and musician Uroš Weinberger. His lengthy artistic career is based on depicting idyllic scenes, dressed into dystopic variants that instill disquiet and horror in the viewer. The technological and ideological evolution of human society has always been based on our wellbeing; however, we can feel in our own time and environment that progress means primarily the increasingly better illusion of freedom and society’s push towards ignorance.

The artworks are a window into the world of the sarcastic and ironic reality of our society, where plastic snakes have replaced mythological creatures and where drones are covered by unsuspecting and innocent creatures. According to the author, the worst nightmare is the one we cannot wake up from, and it appears that the conflicted social reality of today is that very kind. We speak of unprecedented global connection without a care, simultaneously turning our back on those who need help the most. The painted drones, therefore, aren’t just a symbol of the constant fear felt by the inhabitants of warzones, but a reminder of the responsibility and thoughtfulness that are brought on by any progress and that are the easiest to give up in the mindless rush towards immediate gratification.

Tia Čiček (Uroš Weinberger: die Drohnen, Kamera Gallery, Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Ljubljana, 8.1. – 28.1.2018)

Uroš Weinbergers künstlerischer Ansatz übernimmt teilweise die subversive Intention einer solchen Kommunikationsguerilla und setzt sie mit malerischen Mitteln, das heißt mit Ölfarbe auf Leinwand, um. Er bedient sich dabei aus dem Bilderhaushalt der Medien und setzt ausgewählte Ausschnitte für sein jeweiliges Bildthema zu neuen Szenerien zusammen. So entstehen Bildpuzzles oder Bildsamplings, die die zu transportierende Kritik erzählerisch verdichten, ja, so etwas wie eine jeweils kritische Bildformel erzeugen. Bei allem Detail-Realismus der Malerei des Künstlers wirkt der Zusammenhang dieser Details eher unscharf, vernebelt-unrealistisch bis surreal. In dieser Reibung wird aus jeder Kritik eine Metapher oder eine Allegorie für das anvisierte Thema, gleichzeitig erhält der Betrachter/die Betrachterin auch mehr Interpretationsspielraum.

Die Vorgehensweise ist nicht neu. Moderne szenische Malerei – etwa seit Otto Dix – zieht sich durch das ganze vergangene Jahrhundert. Ihre Tradition reicht besonders vom Sozialistischen Realismus bis hinein in die figurationslastige, narrativ angelegte Neue Leipziger Schule um Neo Rauch oder Hans Aichinger und anderen. Grundsätzlich geht es dabei um eingedampfte Kammerspielszenen, die teilweise bis zum Icon verlabelt werden. Uroš Weinberger bedient sich häufig der fotografischen Bildsprache der 1950er bis 1980er Jahre. Er zerstört sie jedoch nicht, sondern instrumentalisiert sie so, dass sie durch einen neuen Zusammenhang fremd bis entstellt daher kommt. So wirkt die intendierte Medienkritik Uroš Weinbergers bei ihrem hohem ästhetischen Wert der malerischen Umsetzung um so ätzender.

Ein paar Beispiele.

Einige der hier gezeigten Arbeiten nehmen sich die Ölindustrie vor, auch die Pharmaindustrie, die Videoüberwachung, den Generationenwandel der Digital Natives und den gewalttätigen Konflikt.

Hier, in Uroš Weinbergers Malerei, werden visuelle Ästhetik und Medienkritik zu Komplizen dessen, was man inzwischen unter Culture Jamming versteht: ganz allgemein ein Protest gegen die alles beherrschende Logo-Welt der global rivalisierenden Interessen und ihrer wuchernden medialen Verbreitung, bei der es kein wahr und falsch mehr gibt, sondern weitestgehend nur noch Interessenattraktoren.

Uroš Weinberger hat sich in dem Malzyklus Seven Sisters die Ölmultis vorgenommen. Als Seven Sisters oder Supermajors wurden nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg jene sieben Ölkonzerne bezeichnet, die in den 1950er bis 1970er Jahren den globalen Ölmarkt beherrschten.

In einer Ausstellung im KiBela (Raum für Kunst) in Maribor im Frühsommer 2016 hatte er den gesamten Zyklus gezeigt. Vier Gemälde daraus hat er mit nach Ravensburg gebracht. Heute bestehen die Seven Sisters so nicht mehr, was die Machtkonzentration eher weiter zuspitzt. Gegenwärtig sind es nur noch vier Konzern-Giganten: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell und BP.

In seinen monumentalen Gemälden generiert Uroš Weinberger seine Bildkritik an der Diktatur dieser Konzerne, deren Macht, deren Praktiken und Auswirkungen.

Auch die Pharmaindustrie hat Uroš Weinberger im Visier. In seinem Gemälde Minister of Health Warns von 2010, das unter dem Eindruck des Todes seines Vaters entstand, zeigt der Künstler auf drastische Weise, was die lustig-bunt daherkommenden Pillen seiner Meinung nach anrichten können. Die bittere Aussage: Pillen sind das Gift, das uns töten wird. Man kann sich dagegen nicht wehren. Aus blühendem Leben wird zuerst kontaminiertes, dann entsorgbares Leben. Das Krankenhaus: ein Ort des Todes und nicht ein Ort der Gesundheit.

 Grundsätzlich speist sich Uroš Weinbergers Bild- und Medienkritik zunächst aus einer vermeintlichen sorglos-idyllischen Quelle. Ironie, Satire und Sarkasmus können diese Idylle jedoch verätzen und sie erkenntnisleitend hinüberführen in Empörung und Beklemmung, Wut und Protest. Spätestens jetzt könnte einem ein Licht aufgehen. Aber Erkennen und Aufwachen sind zweierlei.

Deshalb will ich mit einem Satz von Uroš Weinberger selbst schließen: Der beängstigendere Alptraum sei nicht der Alptraum der Nacht, wie man vermuten könnte, sondern der Alptraum am Tage. Warum? Da sei Aufwachen nicht möglich.

Gemessen an der Weltlage eine zutreffend pessimistische Einschätzung. Aber vielleicht gibt es da noch Lösungsansätze. Die Zukunft wird es zeigen.

dr. Herbert Köhler [aica] (Uroš Weinberger: Oase des Wusts, Kunsthalle Ravensburg, Ravensburg, Nemčija/Germany, 13.1. – 3.3.2017)

Uroš Weinberger is an artist – a painter and a musician, which also makes him a performer. His works are complemented and executed by means of a painting technique, and create the sense of a digital image being painted in an entirely traditional manner: oil on canvas.    

Of course, it is not our intention to categorize Uroš Weinberger as belonging to a particular period on the art history timeline, but rather, to draw certain parallels. We can definitely claim that the artist is very well acquainted with the course of development of painting through history; from renaissance landscapes in the background, through baroque absolutism that expressed power and plentitude, all the way to realism (of motifs), and finally topped with a fair share of surrealism. Yet, in spite of all this, the artist remains authentic and creates an entirely new – contemporary – approach to traditional painting. His works are like digital images on a screen, their profoundness intensified by the size of the formats, overwhelming us from close up like some sort of augmented reality that keeps absorbing us into the artwork. By knowing and combining diverse painting techniques the artist achieves maximum involvement and immersion of the observer into the painting.          

Weinberger’s themes are socially critical; on this occasion we are confronted with a seven-piece series titled Seven Sisters. The painted visual images are presented in the form of oil company “advertisements”, with images of people wearing protective gas masks, and various situations that remind of natural disasters, or some sort of crisis, or people migrating, but instead of suitcases, they are carrying petrol cans. The message is all the more straightforward because the paintings include actual oil company logotypes of Shell, Texaco, Gazprom, ExxonMobil, Esso, and BP (British Petroleum).  

Weinberger’s Seven thus form a modern-day socially critical assemblage: the outspokenness of its message, in fact, establishes a sphere, from which further subliminal meanings arise. Giant oil corporations are already associated with aggressive capitalism, shallow commercialization, and exploitation of natural and human resources. The artist thus actually takes us into the good old world of classic horror movies.

Welcome to the Texaco Chainsaw Massacre.

Nina Jeza, Artists&Poor’s (Uroš Weinberger: Seven Sisters, KiBela, space for art, MMC KIBLA, Maribor, Slovenia, 27.5. – 18.6.2016)