IRENA POLANEC was born in 1948 in Maribor. She belongs to the top of the most established Slovenian and at the same time French contemporary painters. As a teenager, she began her painting career in Paris, and gallerists exhibited her painting at the age of 19 in the Mona Lisa gallery together with works by Salvador Dalí. The Maribor woman was awarded many prestigious prizes by the French during her decades of fruitful painting career, and the elite French association Société des Artistes Français accepted her as a permanent member. In 1997, she became famous mainly for the recognizable cycle of paintings Eva, where her main inspiration is emancipated female figures.