Marko Modic is a renowned Slovene multimedia artist best known for his abstract photography and paintings. His works have been showcased in galleries across the globe, as well as in various publications and monographs.

Amoebix at the AA is devoted to the eponymous Amoebix, multidimensional assistants that Marko initially encountered whilst voyaging through 1990s’ wild and untouched Patagonia. No hallucinogenic drugs were involved, we are told. Amoebix can assume countless forms in order to pass through Marko’s mind canals until they emerge in the wondrous, strange caverns of his subconscious. There they forage for random tidbits and detritus, bringing them to the forefront to be expressed on paper and canvas. Simply looking at Marko’s works reveals a tattered old photograph here, a frayed electrical cable there… and please do not even get us started about the 20-year-old slice of prosciutto encased in clear resin.

Amoebix utilise a hitherto unknown language to communicate, assuming almost hieroglyph-like shapes, tantalising passers-by with their hidden meaning. Marko himself cannot be certain about some words he has expressed onto paper (something to do with a thick Northern accent, we are told), but assures us that the communications are merely attempts at communication between his left and right cerebral lobe. Looking closer at Amoebix and the accompanying texts, an English-speaking reader might be surprised to find entire sentences that almost make sense, eliciting the desire to scratch at one’s cerebellum. Monochrome is boring, black and white is dull – you will usually find Amoebix surrounded by a riot of colours and shapes, drawing the onlooker’s eye hither and fro as if they were spectating a table tennis match. 

Mark Kacar, M.D.

Marko Modic, abstract photographer, painter and multimedia experimenter.

When not skiing 30 metres beneath the surface of the sea or in the gaping maw of an extinct volcano, Marko Modic occasionally shoots photographs. These photographs seem to have caught somebody’s eye as they had adorned the walls of esteemed establishments across the world such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, The Barbican, Museo Reina Sofia and others.

The subjects of his work are numerous but ultimately of no importance. Modic’s unique view portrays everyday items in a new light, with imposing mountain ranges and children’s dolls melding in “photosyntheses”, forming surreal, almost magical tableaux. His grand opus, dedicated to the element water, keeps growing day by day, biding its time before it sweeps us all away.

Modic, however, is not ‘just’ a photographer, with multiple exhibitions showcasing his paintings accompanied by music produced by the artist himself eliciting an eerie, strange and wonderful world that reveals a different facet to each and every beholder.

He is calm but restless, eccentric but grounded. To see the world through his eyes, if only for a moment, is an experience beyond compare.