FEMALE ARTISTS OF NIS - A SELECTION OF WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE SLU GALLERY NIS

FINE ARTISTS OF NIS - A SELECTION OF WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE SLU GALLERY OF NIS

MMC Gallery Novi Pazar, April 4 - 18, 2025

Since its founding in 1970, the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš has been dedicated to nurturing contemporary creativity, and thanks to the careful collection, preservation, protection, study and presentation of works of domestic and foreign art, the institution today has a valuable collection of around two thousand exhibits in the visual, aesthetic and historical sense, classified into five collections. A significant part of the fund are the works of fine artists from Niš, which provide insight into the trends and multi-layered changes in the visual scene of this region, and are the subject of study by curators, so far based mainly on analysis in the thematic - motif or stylistic - media sense. This Collection includes one hundred works by forty artists of different generations, styles and artistic practices, who live and create or are connected to this region by origin or work biography. The collection is enriched with these exhibits, the city's precious cultural heritage, gifts and purchases from solo or collective exhibitions and the participation of authors in residency programs, convocations of the Sićevo Art Colony and the Graphic Workshop.

Dealing with this topic was encouraged by the intention to point out the valuable contribution of Niš's female artists over the last five decades, but also by the personality, work and social engagement of Nadežda Petrović, the famous painter who 120 years ago founded the First Yugoslav Art Colony in the village of Sićevo, not far from Niš, the forerunner of today's Sićevo Art Colony.

From the very beginning, the gallery has strived to follow and support the work of artists of different ages, from the very young, through artistically formed representatives of the middle generation, to already established, prominent protagonists with rich careers, members of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (ULUS), winners of awards and significant recognitions for their work. Some of them studied or advanced abroad, achieved significant results in international settings, and a certain number of them are dedicated to pedagogical work at the Faculty of Arts, the Art School or in related educational institutions.

The works of Niš female artists represented in the GSLU collection have so far been exhibited mostly individually, at solo or collective exhibitions, published in catalogs or monographs, but never presented as a whole. Heterogeneous in visual expression, approaches and reflections, within a given chronological framework, they depict movements in the art of southeastern Serbia, the openness of the environment to new phenomena and contemporary aspirations and as such provide the possibility of comparison in a local and wider context.

Whether they expressed their emotions, inner feelings and experiences of the world around them through the medium of graphics, painting or combining materials, the motif of nature prevails in their works, which can be attributed to the fact that most of them were created during their stay in the colony. The painters, like Nadežda Petrović, enjoyed the freedom of creation under the open sky, and, unrestricted in terms of themes and motifs, consistent with their own artistic vocabulary and poetics, they transferred their visual sensations and impressions of the environment to the canvas. In addition to the Sićevo landscape, the gorge through which the Nišava River flows, rocks, mountain ranges and rich vegetation, they have woven into their works the impressions of their stay, the atmosphere of working in the colony, visiting the monastery and its surroundings, the acquaintances they made and socializing with the hospitable inhabitants. The artists were also inspired by the characteristic architecture of Sićevo, the village houses, and the life of people in rural and sparsely populated areas. In recent years, the participants of the Graphic Workshop have enriched the collection with interesting observations and new, current content.

The authors also recognized the starting point for their artistic research in the dialogue with the past and the rich cultural and historical heritage of this region. Relying on the traditions of medieval painting and the spiritual heritage of Byzantium, reducing visual elements to symbols or signs, giving them sublime, spiritual meanings, they created a special visual expression that seems spatially and temporally boundless.

Some artists, inspired by delicate creative energy and a constant need for novelty in their work and experimentation with materials, transformed their recognizable poetics into highly abstract compositions of simple, clean, systematically shaped surfaces and minimalist lines, leaving the viewer with the opportunity for emotional identification, analysis of inner worlds and the formation of irrational spaces.

Building their professional identity, the authors remained faithful to the medium of painting, drawing and graphics, while interest in sculpture is noticeable in a very small number of artists, mostly up to the year 2000. In three-dimensional shaping, they cultivated a complex, figurative approach, built classical, anatomical forms with specific processing of materials and gradually, in accordance with the trends of the time, introduced modern expression into their artistic practice. Unfortunately, in the last two decades, the collection has not been enriched with new works by female sculptors.

Taking into account the current moment, the possibilities of modern technologies and the influence of scientific achievements in the field of artyou, and contact and exchange with other cultural spaces, it is realistic to expect that Niš female artists will soon step into the world of new media, and that subsequent analyses and presentations will also include such types of research.

The exhibition at the MMC Gallery is an opportunity for the audience in Novi Pazar, based on a selection of works, to get acquainted with the creativity, individual development path of Niš female artists and gain insight into the city's art scene. With the narratives, poetics and approaches represented, it depicts diversity and presents them as active actors, who are stimulated by intense events and changes in visual art, with the undoubted influence of heritage and tradition, while remaining consistent with their artistic style and vocabulary, and are open to new knowledge, the influence of contemporary trends and tendencies. Compared to the number of male painters, graphic artists, and sculptors, there is a small number of academically educated female artists who have created in this environment, but taking into account the multiple roles of women in society and life in general, along with the need for self-realization, we must emphasize that their contribution to the cultural sphere is valuable.

It is encouraging that interest in fine arts as a future calling is increasingly present, and that this environment every year gives birth to new generations of young female authors, whose works and engagement will one day, as part of the GSLU collection, encouraged by this, be the subject of new reflections and studies.

Emilija Ćoćić Bilić

by Nebojsa