Нишки цртеж – Рефлексије

„Нишки цртеж – Рефлексије“

23.12. 2025. -  27.2.2026.

Галерија савремене ликовне уметности Ниш верно негује своју традицију годишњег организовања специјализоване изложбе под називом „Нишки цртеж“. Дуже од тридесет година изложба је у фокусу преданости приређивача, верности излагача и подршке посматрача.

За овогодишњу изложбу „Нишког цртежа“ трочлана селекциона комисија је од 102 приспела рада изабрала дела 64 уметника из многих градова Србије, који су на различите начине односно транспарентно, метафорично или симболично одговорили задатој теми - РЕФЛЕКСИЈЕ.

Један број уметника (Јелена Шалинић Терзић, Бранко Николов, Јелена Китић, Ђуро Радоњић, Катарина Ђорђевић, Наташа Станојевић, Бојан Живић, Борис Кандолф, Анита Јовановић Радосављевић, Милица Анђелковић) својим ликовним опсервацијама се парадигматично ослања на природно-физички домен појма рефлексије. Њихова дела било да бележе тренутак који стоји између покрета и мировања, или се ослањају на оптичке илузије таласања и одсјаја, одишу медитативном атмосфером, осећањем смираја и тишине а продукт су садејства промишљености и интровертности непосредне уметничке реакције. Већина аутора (међу којима су Сања Солунац, Братислав Башић, Никола Марковић, Бојан Оташевић, Анђела Мујчић, Зоран Круљ, Марко Стајић, Наталија Бањац, Стеван Китић, Миа Арсенијевић...) определила се за мисаоно-филозофску конотацију термина рефлексије концентришући се на одраз компликованих и конфузних прилика постојеће реалости на eгзистенцијална стања савременог човека, при чему су углови њихових посматрања међузависности мирко и маркокосмоса потпуно полифоно интонирани са извориштима у доменима економије, психологије, идеологије, етике...

Применом различитих мотива, текстуалних порука, симбола, цитата, уметници ликовно дефинишу појам рефлексије у контексту друштвених прилика преко неких од актуелних питања нашег доба као што су: положај жена,  отрошачко друштво, малограђански менталитет, забрињавајућа отуђеност, медикаментна зависност, фрагментација личности, криза идентитета... Изложба подразумева широк генерацијски распон заступљених уметника тако да пружа  могућност дијалога и компарације између радова афирмисаних уметника добро познатих широј и стручној јавности и дела сасвим младих аутора тек окончаног уметничког образовања. Такође изложба сведочи о  азличитом поимању цртежа. Поједини уметници му приступају на традиционалан начин и уобичајним средствима (оловка, угљен, туш и перо, пастел, акварел) граде своје линеарне или бојене структуре лирски, експресионистични или геометријски однеговане, док други, свој однос према цртежу дефинишу кроз проширено поље његовог деловања у другим медијима (слика, дигитални принт, фотографија, видео), свесни да је цртеж изворни почетак иако можда благо приметан у финалном продукту.

by Nebojsa

10. Нишки салон: 12/2

10. Нишки салон: 12/2

Официрски дом 20. новембар – 17. децембар 2025.

По десети пут публика ће моћи да посети Нишки салон: 12/2, годишњу изложбу која обухвата дела дванаесторо уметника по избору два селектора. Селектори овогодишње јубиларне изложбе су Ивона Фрегл, независна кустоскиња из Београда и проферсор Слободан Радојковић са Факултета уметности у Нишу. У селекцији Ивоне Фрегл своје радове излажу Драгослав Крнајски,  Душан Стипић Dudwarszky, Сања Латиновић, Нина Тодоровић, Нина Марић и Дања Текић, док селекцију Слободана Радојковића чине дела Лидије Антанасијевић, Владимира Вељашевића, Елизабете Маторкић Бисенић, Владимира Милановића, Иване Милев и Мине Ракиџић Достанић.

У избору дела Ивоне Фрегл заступљени су и класични и тзв. нови медији: скулптура, сликарство, колаж, асамблаж, видео, фотографија, перформанс и инсталација. Тумачећи их Ивона Фрегл, између осталог, наводи: Радови Драгослава Kрнајског проблематизују друштвено-политичку ситуацију, запаљиву реторику и присутну напетост која утиче на све нас. Монументална инсталација Душана Стипића Дудварског разобличава потчињен положај човека данашњице и бесмисао таквог постојања. Перформанси Сање Латиновић указују на прекарни рад уметника, али и на значај заједништва и колективних акција кроз емпатију. Видео радови и колажи Нине Тодоровић утврђују константни отпор природе према нестручним, бруталистичким покушајима њеног кроћења. Визуелно пријемчив полиптих Хербаријум – New Life Нине Марић представља двоструку природу (лек и отров) биљака. Радови Дање Текић нас враћају себи, у неко место, мирног света у коме су све опције не само могуће већ и паралелно присутне.

Селекцију Слободана Радојковића чине радови из домена графике, цртежа, колажа, сликарства, скулптуре и објекта. Одабраним делима Лидија Антанасијевић опсервира друштвено-политичка гибања. Сведене пејзаже Владимира Вељашевића одликује уодношеност површина и тока линије, док колажи Елизабете Маторкић Бисенић носе персонализовану мисао о хуманости и одрицању. Као парафраза сопственог рада, цртежи у боји Владимира Милановића носе прозрачност и  лакоћу. У нестандарним вајарским материјалима, преплетаји Иване Милев конституишу монументални објекат. Дело Мине Ракиџић Достанић је изведено неконвенционалним графичким поступцима, концепцијски индиковано промишљањима о природи простора и окружења.

Ивона Фрегл (Београд, 1969) је дипломирала 2005. године на Филозофском факултету Универзитета у Београду, одсек за Историју уметности, катедра за Историју архитектуре. У периоду 2016-2018. била је кустос и члан уметничког савета галерије Луцида у Београду. Један је од оснивача и директор удружења грађана за развој и унапређење визуелне и ликовне уметности АРТ-ЗУМ. Од 2018. ради као независан кустос. Организовала је, реализовала и била аутор текста у каталозима више од педесет самосталних и групних изложби. Члан је УЛУПУДС-а у статусу самосталног уметника (стручњака у култури).

Слободан Радојковић (Ниш, 1967) је дипломирао на ФЛУ у Скопљу 1992. године. Последипломске студије графике (1996) и докторске уметничке студије (2016) завршио на Факултету ликовних уметности у Београду. Ради на Факултету уметности Универзитета у Нишу у звању редовног професора за предмете Графика и Графика са технологијом. На пословима кустоса и графичког дизајнера био је запослен у Галерији СЛУ Ниш од 1994 до 2015. године. Иницијатор је оснивања Графичке радионице Сићево 2006. године.

Члан је УЛУС-а од 1993. године, од када је излагао на више од 350 колективних изложби у земљи и иностранству (Македонија, Бугарска, Аргентина, Јапан, Грчка, САД, Канада, Египат, Француска, Румунија, Кина, Црна Гора, Мексико, Италија, Мађарска, Белгија...). Реализовао 32 самосталне изложбе у многим градовима Србије (Ниш, Београд, Пирот, Нови Сад, Кикинда, Прокупље, Смедеревска Паланка, Краљево, Крагујевац, Рашка, Лесковац) и у иностранству ( Бугарска, САД, Канада, Италија, Швајцарска, Црна Гора, Северна Македонија).

На отварању 10. Нишког салона: 12/2 биће изведен перформанс Човече, не љути се Сање Латиновић. Награда Нишког салона за најуспешнији рад биће накнадно додељена, током трајања изложбе. Публика ће моћи да је посети до 17. новембра.

by Nebojsa

diSTRUCTURE "Unequal Geographies / Possibility of the Sublime"

On Thursday, October 9th at 7 p.m., the exhibition "Unequal Geographies / Possibility of the Sublime" by the artistic duo diSTRUKTURA will open in the exhibition hall of the former Officers' Home.

Milica Milićević and Milan Bosnić (diSTRUKTURA) graduated and received their master's degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Department of Painting. Since 2005, they have been working together as the artistic duo diSTRUKTURA and under that name have participated in over 30 solo and more than 70 group exhibitions in Serbia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Romania, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Japan, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Croatia, Hungary, Finland and Egypt. diSTRUKTURA has participated in artist-in-residence programs and workshops in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Italy, Finland, Egypt and Serbia. They are the recipients of several awards and scholarships, including the Pollock-Krasner grant for 2015. Their works are in over 15 public and private collections.

diSTRUKTURA continuously engages with landscape, examining the role of this genre and its formal modalities, starting from romantic painting, all the way to digital and artificially generated images. By addressing the essential connection of this artistic genre and its historical conditioning with ideas of identity, belonging, power and hegemony, they raise a number of questions concerning individual and collective awareness of biodiversity and the universal importance of its preservation, on the one hand, and unilateral economic interest, on the other. Through the artistic work of diSTRUKTURA, neglected differences between natural places, landscapes subordinated to human needs and virtual nature are mediated, that is, they point to the historical deprivation of the direct experience of nature.

This artistic couple is continuously present on the international contemporary art scene, and their work features landscapes of different meridians and vedutes of different cities around the world. The exhibition “Unequal Geographies” belongs to the project “Possibility of the Sublime” and, based on scenes from the mines of the former Zlatara Majdanpek, now managed by the Chinese company Zijin Mining, it speaks about the geopolitical aspect of a space and points to the worrying possibility of recognizing something that could perhaps be called the image of a colonial landscape, which is present in economically underdeveloped areas.

The dominant part of the exhibition in Niš is represented by paintings, which treat the category of the sublime in two ways. In a smaller number of works, through sequentiality and filtering, similar to digital manipulation of images, a certain landscape is presented as more delicate or exciting than the initial occasion itself. However, the primary principle in a larger number of works is the successive annulment of the landscape until its complete abolition, thus approaching “sublime destruction” no longer as an aesthetic category, but as a paradigm of human existence.

The exhibition in the Officers’ Home will include works of art in the fields of painting, photography and video. This is the first solo exhibition of diSTRUKTURA in Niš. They were participants in the art colony "Sićevo" in 2011, and their works were exhibited as part of numerous exhibitions from the Contemporary Painting Collection of the SLU Gallery, as well as in the 5th Niš Salol: 12/2. The exhibition in Niš is organized by the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts, after which it will be held in Kruševac and Čačak. A rich unified catalog will be published at the end of this year in co-publishing by the Art Gallery "Nadežda Petrović" Čačak, the Art Gallery Kruševac, the SLU Gallery Niš and the non-governmental organization ProArtOrg from Belgrade. In addition to diSTRUKTURA, the opening of the exhibition "Unequal Geographies / Possibility of the Sublime" will also be addressed by art historian Sanja Kojić Mladenov, the curator of the exhibition and the author of the text accompanying this exhibition. On behalf of the SLU Gallery, the curator is Milan Ristić.

by Nebojsa

Seven decades of dedication - Gallery of the Serbian Army Home 1953–2023

Seven Decades of Commitment - Gallery of the Serbian Armed Forces

1953–2023, organized in cooperation with the Defense Media Center of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Serbia.

The exhibition premiered in December 2023 at the Gallery of the Serbian Armed Forces in Belgrade, and is dedicated to marking 70 years of its existence and work. The exhibition consisted of 70 of the most representative works of fine and applied art from the rich collection, which includes about 1,500 works of national art. After the Belgrade premiere, the exhibition also visited the Kikinda National Museum in 2024.

The Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš, in the Officers' Hall, will exhibit several works created in the first half of the last century, such as paintings by Vlaho Bukovac, Ljubo Ivanovic, Marin Tartalja, Milo Milunovic, Kosta Hakman, Jovan Bijelic. The majority of the exhibition will consist of works by Serbian and Yugoslav artists from the second half of the 20th century, such as Petar Lubarda, Zora Petrovic, Milan Konjovic, Mica Popovic and many others. Visitors will also be able to see sculptures by prominent sculptors Nandor Glid, Tomo Rosandic, Angelina Gatalica, as well as works by applied artists Velimir Vukicevic, Borivoj Dedic, Aranka Mojak (ceramics) and Vanja Zanko (tapestry).

The author of the exhibition is Jelena Knežević, museum advisor and head of the Gallery of the Serbian Army House, Belgrade. The visual identity was taken care of by Maja Vučković from the Media Center Odbrana, and the reviews are signed by Dr. Marijana Mraović from the Military Archives and Dr. Katarina Živanović from the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The exhibition will be open to the public until October 5, 2025.

by Nebojsa

STRUCTURES – NIŠ DRAWING 2024

STRUCTURES – DRAWING FROM NISH 2024 STRUCTURES – DRAWING FROM NISH 2024

December 17, 2024 - February 15, 2025

The first exhibition dedicated to drawing as an independent art discipline was organized back in 1991 in the Pavilion of the Niš Fortress and for the next six years it gathered only Niš artists. At the beginning of the new millennium, after a short break, this exhibition grew into a large, significant annual event with a competitive character with a given theme, to which artists from all over Serbia applied. As it gained popularity and an increasing response, each subsequent one was juried.

A total of 94 authors from Niš and other cities in Serbia participated in this year's thirtieth edition, and according to the jury's selection, the exhibition will feature works by 51 authors.

The theme of the Niš Drawing is: STRUCTURES (lat-struete - to arrange, to create)

The figurative approach in fine art has been understood and built from nameless and abstract elements since ancient times. Many contemporary artists have built their aesthetics on the structure of a painting, sculpture, graphic sheet, contemporary drawing or even an installation. We can view structure in the true sense but also comprehensively. Life and social structures, structural orientations, biological structures, sexual structures, political structures, structures of the written word, structures of natural phenomena, structures in music, art, painting, can be terms for visualizing this at first glance simple expression.

The broad understanding of Structure has inspired a large number of Niš Drawing artists, so the works created on the aforementioned theme have been viewed from multiple angles. Most of them stuck to their already recognizable and authentic artistic, intellectual and visual identity, so the exhibition represented a multitude of different techniques and styles. Certainly, the diversity in the understanding of drawing requires a complex reading, drawing attention to the evolution of drawing as a media in the contemporary world of new technologies, which is why, in addition to classic drawing (on charcoal paper or pencil), digital drawing is also represented. While for some artists, the drawing is completely materialized, building a structure of form, color, line, surface. On this occasion, the artists, with their thematic determinants, draw the public's attention to modern man surrounded by globalization, increasing stratification, wars, drastic differences in material status and the struggle for existence. We must mention the influence of social networks on the everyday life of the younger population. The layering of digital media as well as their diverse content can be of great benefit but also harm to society in general. All of the above also affects the contemporary artist, providing him with greater perspectives and information. Therefore, with the abundance of technical possibilities and the creativity of our artists, the exhibition represents a true review of drawing disciplines, which can be divided into several artistic units.

The tradition of classical drawing made in the technique of charcoal, watercolor, graphite pencil and combined techniques in figurative representation is noticeable in Milica Antonijević, Jelena Aranđelović, Miljana Dimitrijević, Ana Cvejić, Anđela Micić, Bojan Otašević, Jovan Spasić, Ivan Perak, Vladimir Randjelović, Sofija Milovanović. With a multi-layered figurative composition performed in pencil and clear ink, Jelena Trajković Popivoda puts drawing on a higher level so that drawing, like life, becomes a game. Expression through nature and natural phenomena is present in the drawings of Biljana Vuković, Jelena Malikov, Slobodan Radojković, Đura Radonjić, Daniela Fulgosi, Tatjana Marticki, while, for example, Jelena Šalinić Terzić, with her monumental depiction of a rocky scene in a relief layered spread of color and line, emphasizes the dominance of nature over man.

The games of geometric shapes and forms, intertwined lines, and circles are dealt with by Vesna Zarev, Stevan Kitić, Danilo Paunović, Jasna Gulan Ruzić, Vladica Ristić, Radovan Stanojev, Milica Rajković, while Dejan Ristić, Tijana Miljković, Marta Pejčić, and Nataša Stanojev use the new possibilities of modern computer drawing and photography techniques.

Nikola Milanov, Anđela Mujčić, Teodora Nikolić, Nikola Marković, Ivana Savić Dragana Kuprešanin, each in their own individual expression, deal with the emotions of modern man caused by personal lived memories or global problems and society.

We observe segments from nature transposed through photography with the rusticity of natural stone in Boris Kandolf. Bratislav Bašić emphasizes the connection with the past of centuries-old culture, art and religion through the remains of our cultural heritage. Many other works realized in abstract representation through drawing, collage, embroidery on paper, canvas generate a broader perspective of understanding structure (Jovana Đorđević, Anica Radošević, Teodora Nikolić, Dominika Morariu). Stylized ornaments from folk handicrafts such as carpets, Nikola Radosavljević, by perforating white paper, wants to point out the equality of everyone in the world and call for truce and harmony. The drawing woven into the stone sculpture of Julija Dubavac takes us back to the ancient past of our ancestors and the drawings in the caves of Altamira, emphasizing the layered intellectual structure of man, that same modern being, the only evolutionary of all mammals on the planet.

Tamara Pešić renames the drawing a warning sign and an anxiety zone of modern society.

The Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš has been nurturing an exhibition named after its venue for more than three decades and is grateful to the authors who have responded positively to the given topic over the past years and whose works, each in their own unique way, have left their mark on the art of their time.

by Nebojsa

Aleksandar Dević - retrospective exhibition

Retrospective exhibitions of paintings and prints by Aleksandar Dević, marking the artist's 45 years of creative work.

Aleksandar Dević (1954, Belgrade) graduated in 1978 from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, where he also received his master's degree. For a short time, he worked as a professor at the Art School "Đorđe Krstić" in Niš and at the Faculty of Arts, participating in the formation of the Department of Applied Arts of this faculty. From 2000 to 2004, he was the director of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts in Niš, where he also worked as a senior associate of the Internet Communications and Publishing Service and was the editor of the gallery's online magazine IIČ. He has had solo exhibitions in many cities in Serbia and in Greece (Volos), America (New York) and Hungary (Budapest). He has participated in more than 50 collective exhibitions in the country and abroad. He has been a member of the Painting Section of ULUS since 1986, as well as the Niš Graphic Circle. He has won several awards, including: the Redemption Award of the SIZ Culture, Belgrade; the Silver Plaque of ULUPUDS and the Special Recognition of the 45th International Festival of Documentary, Short and Animated Film, Belgrade.

In addition to painting, he also works in computer graphics and web design. His paintings and graphics are in private collections in Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, America, and France.
With his decades-long oeuvre, Aleksandar Dević creates and perfects his own world of scenes and visions that are beyond the boundaries of rationalism and perceptual experiences, and under the auspices of imagination and fantasy, which makes him a significant successor to that line of development in our art that was started by Milena Pavlović Barili and Radoica Noe Živanović and applied by the members of Mediala.
From the very beginning, he cultivated a specific approach to figuration. In his earliest works, we can sense the influence of myth, legend, dreams... and in the artistic elaboration, a unique combination of archaism and modernism, rusticity and lyricism. The figure is not only the bearer of the plot, but also a witness and a factor of the ambience that is unusual, fanciful, created from differently treated segments and carries an aura of enigma and mystery. In doing so, Dević stepped into the realm of the surreal and metaphysical, which is the basic characteristic of the entirety of his oeuvre, although during the years of creation, changes occurred in the artistic expression itself, in the iconographic content and artistic structure. The nineties in Dević's oeuvre are marked mainly by graphics of wondrous coloristic harmonies, which exude esotericism and an atmosphere of illusoryness with a dominant impression of sophisticated visual art.

In the paintings created in the last twenty years, Aleksandar Dević has added new varieties and approaches to his artistic "legitimization". Occasionally, applying the principle of displaced quotation, he skillfully combined fragments from medieval or Renaissance art with motifs of different origins, creating dichotomously coded imaginary scenes. His latest paintings are full of some unusual dynamics, bravura "architectural" wonders, phantasmagoric machinery, a metaphysical atmosphere that includes a component of life but also a component of its diabolical destruction. The form is futuristically bold, robotic, disassembled and again assembled from a series of parts and details. Possessing a refined refinement towards semiotically complex symbols, he created a series of paintings of the same motif, which is a precedent in his previous artistic practice. Having skillfully and purposefully chosen the motif of the horse/rider, which has multi-layered meanings, mythological, theological, literary and artistic references (the Trojan Horse, the Holy Warriors, Don Quixote, the wooden horse of Dadaism...), Dević metaphorically raises awareness of various issues of a humanistic and ethical nature, because the time of shaken spirituality and growing technocracy requires a reexamination of existing criteria and values ​​in all spheres, including the field of art. Breaking through the boundaries of the ordinary, Aleksandar Dević has created an opus that is extensive, authentic, meaningfully complex and enigmatic, and artistically precisely elaborated and refined. His works from the mid-19th century, which are a mixture of emotions and dreams, reality and reality, carry a latent mystery, enigma and metaphorical referentiality, making him one of the most original creators, certainly not only of the Niš but also of the national art scene.

The exhibition will run until November 10th.

https://youtu.be/VjD51G2J73o?si=iqO0YPpsVcmPh-MV

by Nebojsa

100 out of 1000 works from the collection of the Art Colony Sićevo

The second exhibition of the exhibition "100 out of 1000 works from the collection of the Sićevo Art Colony" will be available to the public from Thursday, September 19, at 10 a.m., at the Officers' House in Niš. The exhibition is of an international nature and consists of works created in the Colony between 1994 and 2024.

The Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš is organizing the exhibition "100 out of 1000 works from the collection of the Sićevo Art Colony" to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the regular holding of the Colony. The exhibition is designed to follow the chronological sequence of the Colony's existence, illustrating its basic characteristics (Yugoslav and international character, participation of artists of different vocations and stylistic orientations). Due to its large scale, the exhibition is being realized through two exhibitions. The first exhibition (from 29. 8 to 13. 9.) was of a Yugoslav character and included works created during the first three decades of the Colony. The second exhibition is of an international character, since since the beginning of the 1990s, artists from abroad have regularly participated in the work of the Colony. The exhibition is based on works by authors from Serbia and other countries (Japan, Canada, Sweden, Bulgaria...), which were created in the period from 1994 to 2024. The exhibition is also multimedia in nature, because in addition to works of traditional media (paintings, graphics, drawings), objects, video works and video installations are represented, since in the last couple of decades, artists who express themselves through the so-called new media have also been participants of the Colony.

The landscapes of the unique Sićevačka Gorge are a dominant inspiration and a constant artistic challenge for numerous authors. Each of them moved along the selected paths of their own visual poetics in the artistic re-creation of their experience of the gorge, using as an initial impulse a general impression, a panoramic view or just a fragment from nature (Kosta Bradić, Milena Jevtić Nićeva Kostić, Rada Selaković, Zoran Vuković, Miroslav Anđelković, Elizabeth Matje, Kenji Nagai, Branko Nikolov, Sonja Vukašinović, Rajko Popivoda, Jelena Šalinić, Due Martin, Katarina Đorđević, Ivana Stanković, Miroslav Lazović, Slavica Curk, Ljiljana Šunjevarić, the DimTim group...). A number of artists defined their impressions of their stay in the Colony through the symbols of the historical heritage of this region (Čedomir Vasić, Branimir Karanović, Zoran Grebenarović, Jelena Trajković, Vesna Knežević), while others, through works created in Sićevo, pointed to the antagonisms of current geopolitics, social reality, health situations or behavioral psychology (Zlatko Glamočak, Nina Kovačeva and Stefan Valentin, Zoran Veljković, Ivana Ivković, Milica Ruzić, Jovan Spasić, Ivan Milenković).

The author of the exhibition is Milica Todorović, museum advisor.

The exhibition will run until October 10.

Over the sixty years of regular maintenance of the Sićevo Art Colony, an impressive fund of artistic works has been formed, which currently has exactly 1,000 inventory units, of which 88 are kept in the National Museum and 912 in the fund of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts. The most numerous in the collection of the Sićevo Art Colony are paintings (644), followed by graphics, drawings and works on paper (291), sculptures (33), photographs and works of new media (22).

https://youtu.be/jNuIHqy-Mfs

by Nebojsa

RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION - DRAGANA MOMCILOVIĆA

RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION

DRAGAN MOMCILOVIĆ

The Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš, on April 25, 2024, is organizing a retrospective exhibition of paintings and drawings by Dragan Momčilović, a native of Niš. With this exhibition of selected works in the field of fine arts, the artist marks 50 years of his artistic work. The exhibition will be officially opened by Goran Stanković, a Serbian writer of poetry, prose, and essays. In addition to the above, he is engaged in editorial work, as a long-time editor in Gradina, then director of the Niš Cultural Center. Since 2002, he has been the editor-in-chief in the same institution. Winner of many awards in the field of literature. Goran Stanković is, first of all, a long-time friend and collaborator of Dragan Momčilović. At the opening, we will have the opportunity to enjoy the performance of several musical numbers by the string quartet from the Leskovac Symphony Orchestra.

Momčilović was born in 1952 in Crna Trava, from where his family moved to Ćičevac, where he finished elementary school, and then enrolled in the five-year Art School "Đorđe Krstić" in Niš. On the recommendation of Professor Dragan Kostić, after graduating from art school, he began working at the then young and promising publishing house "Gradina", where he established a symbolic and symbolic recognition, and provided visual illustrations for over 1,000 titles. In the late 1970s, he enrolled in the Pedagogical Academy "Kliment Ohridski", and became a member of ULUPUDS and ULUS. Although he worked on the book equipment, as a technical editor, it was then that the painterly being developed in him, inspired by poetry, literary works, primarily the poems of Branko Miljković. Enraptured by lyricism and spirituality, he creates his own visual language, building it very thoroughly and systematically. His paintings become epitaphs dedicated to deceased writers or dialogues with contemporaries of the painting profession. Series of diverse works followed each other from year to year in countless combinations of paintings, drawings, objects. Entire cycles of thoroughly elaborated works of art were created: Epitaph, Obzorja, Blue Line of Life, Seven Dead Poets, About Branko Miljković, Dialogue with Todor (Stevanović), through Image and Object... In addition to the above, Momčilović has been continuously exploring nature and everything that surrounds him for decades, but above all through his own experience and memory. Carried away by personal philosophical thinking, imaginary landscapes filled with symbols, abstract pasty surfaces, an endless embodiment of the horizon, from which the sun rises and sets as a symbol of his life and spirit, were created.

His palette is recognizable, special, individual, as is his way of painting and combining abstract, symbolic and geometric expression through colored drawing. Momčilović's versatility in fine and applied art over the past five decades will remain permanently recorded, through a large number of awards and recognitions from many fairs and solo and collective exhibitions of members of ULUS and ULUPUDS. We must especially highlight his personal engagement in creating the culture of the city, and his great merit in forming the Art Colony "Classic" of the Niš Tobacco Factory (Philip Morris), where he worked from 1993 to 2005. Upon retirement, he devoted himself entirely to painting and working in the studio with the same intensity, creating every day surrounded by friends and family. With this retrospective exhibition, he marks 50 years of his artistic work, with works carefully selected from his rich opus of fine art. Despite the changes he went through, he remained consistent with his chosen creative orientation and artistic expression, which is clear and very recognizable. Considering all the phases of his opus, starting from the figurative to the last abstract, he remained consistent with the informel and the associative illusion of the object form with noticeable traces of artistic abstraction. The maturity and experience gained through daily work and engagement are now proven here in front of us with his works. Fragmentation and layering as well as boundless expressive energy fit with the artist's temperament, which is of the same intensity as at the beginning of his creative journey. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog and an almanac with the painter's artistic manifesto. Dragan Momčilović still wants to say a lot and permanently record it on the canvas, and we thank him for this from the bottom of our hearts and wish him to continue creating for as long as possible.

The exhibition will run until May 25, 2024.

by Nebojsa