Metka Vergnion

Metka Vergnion (1947) is a Slovenia-born, Swiss adopted, Paris-educated artist who has a degree in photography and cinema from the Louis Lumière School; she is currently based in Lisbon. Her father, renowned Slovenian artist, photographer, and pedagogue introduced Vergnion to photography early on. What began as a childhood game, later captivated her and became her medium of artistic expression. Apart from exploring with black and white techniques, Vergnion transforms the image further in her series by adding color. The intensive, unusual color combinations and contrasts enhance the luminous and tonal transitions of her black and white photography. Her mixed medium approach distills and emphasizes certain aspects of the photograph, adding new dimensions, and drawing the viewer into a deeper engagenment with the work.

The various environments the artist resides in remain a constant leitmotif for her work. In the 80’s, she first encountered Chinese culture, and subsequently produced the series Chinese impressions and Made in HK. Japan- another of her adopted cultures, continues to be a strong source of inspiration in the artist’s life and work. By learning from its art forms, aesthetic concepts, and philosophy, new work emerges. Vergnion’s recent work is an assembly of elements from each of her artistic periods. In her series Osmosis, she explores the idea of duality in her original black and white photographic form. In Parallel Universe, her passion for color interwoven with graphic elements expresses the borderline between the seen and the unseen.