Location: Serbia
He was born in Šabac, Serbia. He graduated and obtained a
master's degree in painting from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He earned his
doctorate in painting in Belgrade under the mentorship of Professor Miloš
Šobajić. His most significant solo exhibitions, include a graduate exbition and master's
exhibition in Novi Sad; painting exhibition in Belgrade, 2002; invited
exhibition for the Night of Museums in Šabac, 2009; doctoral exhibition in
Belgrade, 2012; and invited exhibitions organized in Šabac in 2012 and in
Loznica in 2013, among others.
Significant group exhibitions include: the Biennale in Florence, 2017; the
Biennale in Trieste (twice, at the invitation of the organizers, in 2020 and
2022); a video exhibition at Tili Gallery in Paris, 2024; and at One Art
Gallery in New York; Modern Drawing in Serbia, 2003; spring and autumn salons
in Belgrade; and international small format exhibitions, among others.
He is a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (ULUS), and served
as vice president of the Artistic Council (ULUS), from 2011 to 2013. He is also
a member and president of the jury at several national exhibitions. His most
significant awards include: Academy of Arts, Novi Sad, 1981; October Salon,
Šabac, 1997; award for portrait in Šabac, 1997; award for painting in Loznica,
2000; international award "Andrea Mantegna," 2017; Annual Award of
ULSŠ, Šabac, 2018; Award for Drawing in Šabac, 2018; international award
"Tribute to Titian," 2018; international award "Premio
Canaletto," 2018; Award from the magazine World of Art, 2024; and several
other international honors.
He is present in several institutions and private collections. Has been a
long-time professor of drawing and painting at the School of Applied Arts.
The scream as a theme is the product of my inner unrest, a manifestation of a kind of human denudation, denudation to the color of the flesh. Denudation is metaphorical, not natural - descriptive. Although, the red color, whether we wanted it or not, indicates blood, live flesh. If the most dominant experience of the scream as a reaction to fear, the hopelessness of a situation or state, then it indeed is human uncovering to the core. It is a dead end, we are powerless, scared, we do not know where and how - we are looking for help. Whether or not we are aware of it, every scream is a call for help. It is this primordial nature of man as a socialized being, where we are turned towards one another, and that is the only way we can survive.
Painting, although created within one direction or artistic influence, is of deep personal nature; search for the meaning of life occurs only within the boundaries of individual self-confirmation. My attention has been diverted to the painting's essence, viewed through specific prism of personal sensibility, in search for a painting serving as a personal reflection. Emotion, a full constitutional element of a painting, is a possible dominance in proved existence of traditional painting in the totalitarian era of digital media and the marginalization of humans and their individuality. No matter how my paintings are my subjective opinion and personal poetry, I reserve enough space for a spectator and his personal combinatorics, provoked by my visual expression.
“Red Female nude, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 90cm”
I perceive a woman as a symbolof not only Divine beauty and sensuality but also the greatest torments and individual sufferings of a human being in general. The associative representation of the crucifix seemed suitable for the embodiment of my meaning and artistic idea.
I have already pointed to the meaning idea, and the artistic idea sought power, drama, dynamics, as it were, Baroque excitement. The slanting grey masses are an associative representation of architecture as a symbol of urban, contemporary, point to the civilization issue of anxiety and alienation. The red colour of the body was not accidentally chosen. I wanted to bare the human figure as much as possible, not only to make it naked, to the skin but also to go beyond, conditionally speaking, under the skin and to show the body as a flesh.
The lonely figure in space is my formal expression of defining human existence as an experiential relationship to space and time, an expression of alienation. By placing the figure in darkness, it faces its source from which it came and into which it will inevitably return. The cruelty of my images reflects a cruel reality. It embodies my understanding of the truth that I want to confront the observer with.
“Scream, variant VI, acrylic on cardboard, 40 x 28 cm”
“Scream, variant II, acrylic on cardboard, 100 x 70 cm.”
“Scream, variant I, acrylic on cardboard, 100 x 70 cm.”
“Exit”
“Escalators”
“Space”
“Man and umbrella”
“Exit, variant II”
“The staircase”
