Milena Usenik, Arabeska I., 1972, Acrylic on canvas, 71,5cm x 101,5cm
Small but dangers, Mostly Clear, 2020, cotton wool, paper, glass, 18cm x 24cm
4 – 8 March 2026
IFEMA, Madrid
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P74 Gallery
booth 7A12, hall 7
Milena Usenik, Small but dangers
We are delighted to announce P74 Gallery participation at ARCOmadrid 2026. It marks our twelfth – anniversary – participation in this prestigious international art fair. Once again, we are presenting outstanding works by Slovenian artists. This year, we place special emphasis on an open dialogue between different generations, highlighting the exceptional painter Milena Usenik and the collective Small but dangers (Mateja Rojc, Simon Hudolin).
Participation in contemporary art fairs and artist book fairs presents a key form of promotion for Slovenian artistic production in the international area, ensuring its mobility and presence on the global market. P74 Gallery is the only Slovenian gallery that has regularly participated in international contemporary art fairs and artist book fairs over the past (almost) two decades. Between 2008 and 2025, P74 Gallery was selected for important European and American fairs known for their exceptionally rigorous selection processes. We have successfully introduced some of the most compelling young visual artists to international audiences and placed their works in major international collections. We regularly participate, or have participated, in fairs such as ARCO Madrid, VOLTA Basel and New York, ViennaContemporary, Art Rotterdam, Artissima Torino, Paris Photo, and the NY Art Book Fair, among others.
The work of Milena Usenik and the collective Small but dangers reveals several surprising parallels. Milena Usenik, an exceptional artist and athlete, exhibited alongside her colleagues, yet was often overlooked by the critics. In the 1970s, she introduced an innovative fusion of Op Art and Pop Art, creating an outstanding body of paintings distinguished by its unique and original hybridity. Pop Art in Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe developed under very different social, political, and economic conditions. It offers a critique of consumer society and its representations and addresses selected political issues. Her works in this context particularly foreground the question of the female body as an object of desire in mass media and popular culture.
The work of Small but dangers presents multilayered pieces – a collage of two relatively distinct perspectives on life and art. Their practice most often involves recognizable fragments of the material world, which persist as installations, works on paper, readymade objects, and paintings on canvas. Small elements of the social environment appear as human remnants in both literal and metaphorical senses. Small but dangers believe that elements of the material world are imprinted with the ideas and contents of those who shape them. They produce new works while simultaneously incorporating found objects, selected according to enigmatic aesthetic criteria. The chosen objects are merely small details – liberated (broken off, torn away, chipped) – which Small but dangers discover and present as memories without clear or fixed content.
more info / inquiry:
p74info@zavod-parasite.si