CoBA and GALLERY 106 Joint Exhibition
Contemporary Balkan Art (CoBA) and G A L L E R Y 106 first joint collaborative exhibition has opened. Private View was on 7 December from 6.30 to 8.30pm and the show continued until 22 January 2017.
Artists:
Roman Djuranovic has held major solo exhibitions in Canada, Turkey, Germany and recently in Taglialatella Gallery in New York. Roman (1969) graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje, Montenegro. In addition to various prestigious awards (such as the Award for Best Young Artist and the Annual Award for Drawing), he has participated in numerous group exhibitions. Roman creates monumental, colorful paintings that portray the ‘scenic’ events of ordinary life and uses figurative archetypes to explore social convention. His strong compositions combined with subtle contours demonstrate his strengths as a painter. His figural motifs often speak of identity and authenticity within relationships, particularly within the genera of fashionable appearance-driven media advertising. Roman sees his work as a part of the Pop Art tradition and as such draws his influences from design, comics, and film. His work infused with his own cultural experiences, imbues his subject matter with relevant and poignant symbolism.
Nemanja Golijanin (1983) comes from Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He graduated from the Department of Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Belgrade. Based on his remarkable accomplishments in the field of figuration and drawing, Nemanja received a prestigious scholarship from the Faculty of Fine Arts, providing him with an opportunity to be an artist-in-residence at the International School of Fine Arts in Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy. The playful line and intense chromatic palette are all a part of depicting the artist′s sensitivity, vibrant personality and bright perception of life. The work projects a certain spirit that produces an effect of a contemplative gaze and the immediacy of life, concurrently. The artist’s work is not an act of escapism from the harsh realities of contemporary society. However, it is looking for an alternative mode of existence within in a hub, which reflects each of our own desires, choices, decisions and fascinations.
Tadija Janicic (1980) is originally from Niksic, Montenegro but he is based in Novi Sad, Serbia. He has an undergraduate degree from the Department of Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts and a postgraduate degree from the Academy of Arts, both in Novi Sad. So far he has held numerous solo exhibitions in Hungary, Japan, Montenegro and Serbia. Moreover, he has regularly participated in group exhibitions at the Östersund kunstvideofestival (Sweden, 2004), Lukas Feichtner Gallery (Austria, 2010), the Erarta Museum in Sankt Petersburg (Russia, 2012), the Gallery le Club des Arts at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (France, 2013), Nest Gallery in Geneva (Switzerland, 2015) and many more. Irony, grotesque and paradox are Janicic’s favourite means of expression; however, he does not use them in order to convey any message, morality or mockery. His attitude toward the world can be interpreted as voyeuristic, whereby what is seen is always a reflection of the seers own intellectual, emotional, philosophical views, dilemmas and notions. The people who act in Tadija’s paintings are not social subjects, but objects who often take passive acceptance as their sole form of social participation and existence.
Zolt Kovac (1975) is based in Belgrade, Serbia. He received undergraduate and masters degrees from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. So far, he has exhibited his artwork in more than twenty solo shows and many more group exhibitions, both in Serbia and internationally (including in Austria, Germany, France, Norway, Estonia, Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Greece). Zolt is the co-founder and editor of the influential online magazine for contemporary art Supervizuelna, providing critical analysis of some of the dominant issues in the field (www.supervizuelna.com). He also plays bass guitar in the alternative rock band Jarboli. Artist work deals with the ‘Empty Time’ where in all-consuming ‘rush’ the criteria are being degraded; the idea of why we started this rush has disappeared and is no longer challenged, critically. Why are we chasing it? Is it money? Fame? Happiness? Fulfillment of newly created needs, for which we do not remember when they sprang into being, within us. Self-realization and productivity have become the one and only religion. We have fallen into this maelstrom of every day activities and obligations, running on endlessly to a powerful state of overwhelming creativity. The stability of this increased presence in which we can spend many hours, rarely realizing that anything else exists outside this micro-activity. Conversely, time can pass quickly, but there is always the impression it is vanishing and more often, we are trying to overcome it through, manic activities.
Iva Kuzmanovic (1984) is a Serbian visual artist, educated at the Department of Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. Her artwork has regularly been exhibited in the Balkans as well as in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland. In her work, tropical jungle scenery, sculls, frames of famous pop music videos and music itself are used as memento mori motifs in the contemporary interpretation of vanitas tradition. Moreover, as a curator and founding member of the U10 Art Space, Iva has hosted more than eighty group and solo exhibitions and other art projects.
Petar Mirkovic (1978) comes from Novi Sad, where he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts. Petar has been artist-in-residence at numerous institutions, including the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (Kiev) and Art Phalanx (Vienna). He has participated in group exhibitions organized by the Palais de Tokyo Hype Gallery (Paris, 2004), Röda Sten (Gothenburg, 2006), Zerynthia (Rome, 2007), Saatchi & Saatchi (London, 2007), Tom Christoffersen Gallery (Copenhagen, 2008) and Kunstlerhaus (Vienna, 2014). Petar presented his artwork in solo exhibitions at Cité international des Arts (Paris, 2004), Remont Gallery (Belgrade, 2010) and Lukas Feichtner Gallery (Vienna, 2013). In addition, he has taken part in numerous art fairs in Europe, Asia and North America. Playing with shadows, reflections, textures, and glare of street lamps and car headlights, Mirkovic creates a kind of exciting urban mythology. His works are extremely attractive and leave a strong impression on the observer. Although his drawings are in charcoal on paper, they give the impression of being black-and-white photographs. Mirkovic’s works could be categorized under hyperrealism, but the author says he never gave priority to this effect.
The artists are based from Podgorica to Belgrade and Novi Sad and they exhibit regularly. After Janicic, Mirkovic and Djuranovic exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York, the artists will be showing their representative pieces to the UK public in Gallery 106 in London.