Marko Blažo was born in Košice, Slovakia in 1972. There, he studied at the Secondary School of Art Industry in Košice (1987–1991) before enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (1991–1998). During this period he successfully participated in programmes abroad: one at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Dijon in 1993 and another at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania in 1994. Through this wide-ranging academic journey, Blažo became skilled in a variety of techniques, such as painting, drawing, graphic design, photography and 3D object production.
When he arrived on the Slovak art scene in the 1990s, his early work mainly consisted of object-based art installations with a mundane or nondescript point of origin – chewing gum or a child’s paper jigsaw puzzle, for example – in a bid to disrupt the viewer’s expectations. Paper renditions of famous architectural monuments were also a staple of this early period. Through both approaches, a common denominator emerged: the use of paradox and absurdity to reframe pre-existing referents. This principle anchored his process from then on.
Blažo’s corpus contains an abundance of reoccurring motifs from all periods of (art) history: the razor blade, the can (in reference to Andy Warhol and pop art more generally), classical architecture, Aphrodite, references to Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgio de Chirico, René Magritte or Hokusai’s Great Wave. Indeed, Blažo’s imaginary is nourished by the art he appreciated. This, in turn, implies his own sub-textual production possesses a postmodern quality, as each allusion is reinterpreted and varied in a plethora of fashions. The constant juxtaposition of timeless motifs (classical architecture and art) with more time-specific or contemporary images raises an interesting, albeit difficult question to answer: Are the images of pop art or the present-day motifs he explored as culturally significant as their older counterparts? What Blažo attempted to create, it seems, was a new age of classicism, a new pantheon of (now) timeless images and influences.
He produced later works using digital prints, a paradoxical choice seemingly distancing an otherwise inherently personal production.
Playful and referential, Blažo’s work quickly allowed him to stand out among his generation. In 1999, he took part in the collective effort Slovak Art for Free at the Venice Biennale, and later that year received the Slovak Honourable Mention for advancing to the finals of the Tonal ‘99 competition in Trnava, Slovakia. Other awards include: the Oscar Čepan Award, Bratislava (2001); the Jury Prize at the first Biennial of Ibero-American Graphic Work, Cáceres, Spain (2005); winner of the 16th Contemporary Slovak Graphic Art Competition (2005); the Artslant Award, Los Angeles, USA (2006); the Rector’s Award from the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, Poland; the International Triennial of Graphic Arts, Krakow, (2012); and Strabag Award finalist, Vienna (2009 and 2010).
Starting in 2004, Blažo sought to share his experience and vision as a teacher at the Faculty of Arts of the Technical University in Košice.
SILENCE AND ROOM at the Nitra Gallery in 2013 marked the first comprehensive monographic exhibition on Blažo’s corpus.
