Biography

Lea Jazbec (b. 1979, Kranj, Slovenia) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice is grounded in experimental, practice-based research. She works across drawing, photography, graphic printmaking, video, sound, sculpture and site-specific installation, with a sustained focus on spatial perception, temporality and the materiality of light. She holds an MFA (Hons) and a BA in Painting from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, Italy.

Jazbec’s artistic approach is informed by the observation of nature, the human condition and perceptual processes. Light functions both as a material and as a conceptual tool through which she explores the boundaries of the visible, the tangible and the unknown. Moving deliberately between media, she develops site-specific works that engage with architectural, natural, cultural and industrial environments. Her method often involves testing different “spatial keys” — shifting viewpoints, scales and sensory conditions — to reveal hidden relationships within a given space.

Her interest in light and spatial research began during her studies in Venice and was further developed through the Artist-in-Residence programme at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa (2008–2009). Since then, she has realised long-term series and projects, including Time–Eye (2010–2023), Reconstruction of the Projected Image (2018–2026) and Behind the Reflection (2016–2023), frequently working with camera obscura, projected image and immersive installations in public and non-institutional spaces.

Since 2023, she has been developing two significant collaborative practices: as an artistic duo with Brane Širca on the multimedia project High Waters, which moves between analogue and digital media and installation, and with artist Bess Frimodig under the name FotoGrafika, focusing on experimental graphic processes at the intersection of photography and printmaking.

From 2012 onwards, Jazbec has maintained an independent artistic practice in Slovenia, initially as a freelance artist and later as a self-employed intermedia artist and producer. In recognition of her sustained artistic production and international visibility, she was granted the privileged status of self-employed artist in culture by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, awarded to a limited number of artists for outstanding achievements in the field.

Her work has been exhibited widely in Slovenia and internationally, including in Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Hungary, Greece and the Czech Republic, and has been presented at institutions such as MGLC Ljubljana, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa (Venice), Careof DOCVA Viafarini (Milan), FIG Bilbao and MAAM Rome. She has participated in artist residencies and professional programmes, and her work is held in public collections.

Alongside her artistic practice, Jazbec is actively engaged in mentoring, lectures and workshops for children, young people and adults, with a particular emphasis on spatial research, light and manual graphic printing. She is a member of DLUL (Ljubljana Fine Artists Society), NGO Happy Artists (Head of the Photography Section), and, since 2024, an alternate member of the Honourable Tribunal of ZDSLU (The Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies).