АКТУЕЛНО
Maja Đurović "Next Time"
Opening of the exhibition on June 26th at 8pm
Exhibition of mosaics by Maja Đurović: “Next time”
Maja Đurović (1977) graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Department of Graphics, in the class of Professor Biljana Vuković. She has been a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia since 2009. She has exhibited at seven solo and over seventy group exhibitions in the country and abroad. She has won several awards for mosaic: FLU Award for Mosaic at the Exhibition of Awarded Students 2005/2006; Plaque for Artistic Contribution to Contemporary Mosaic by the group of fine artists Ametist in Belgrade 2007; Honorable mention at the exhibition of small-format mosaics by the “Ametist” art group in Belgrade in 2011 and an award for exceptional artistic work at the exhibition of the 5th Biennial of Mosaics, organized by the Student Cultural Center New Belgrade in 2012.
She received a commendation for graphics at the 25th October Art Salon in Kovin in 2007; Special recognition for merit at Art Fest & Doral, Miami, Florida, USA, 2012, as well as Plaques from the “Heritage of Metropolitan Pitirim” Fund for the contribution and progress of Serbian art in the Slavic world for participation in the exhibition “1150 Years of Slavic Literacy and Culture”, Moscow, 2013.
For the Tourist Organization of Serbia, she realized replicas: the Medusa mosaic from the ancient settlement of Mediana near Niš and the Venator mosaic from the Felix Romuliana palace near Gamzigrad, 2013. Maja Đurović’s research focuses on the analysis of the inner life of an individual, that is, the state of his or her own being in relation to the environment. Through portrait motifs and human figures, she visualizes the character of the portrayed, emphasizing their individual characteristics. Skillfully handling the technique of mosaics made in natural stone, Maja Đurović presents in a special way her story about passivity, alienation, and apathy in the time and society that surrounds us. The atmosphere is almost elegiac, stopped in a moment that indicates a deep thoughtfulness about one's own existence. All the exhibited works deal with the fate of an ordinary person through visions of lonely, depressed characters who move through the silence of space, wandering aimlessly.
The artistic program of the opening of the exhibition includes:
soprano: Katarina Simonović Ivanković, full professor at the Faculty of Arts in Niš
pianist: Staša Stamenković, professional piano associate, Faculty of Arts in Niš
Exhibition of Fine Artists of Niš - selection of works from the collection of the Academy of Fine Arts of Niš
Exhibition of Fine Artists of Niš - a selection of works from the collection of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš
Herzegovina Museum in Trebinje, 4 - 24 June 2025
On Wednesday, 4 June, the Museum of Herzegovina in Trebinje opened the exhibition of Fine Artists of Niš - a selection of works from the collection of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš, authored by Emilija Bilić, senior curator. By presenting the works of Niš artists in Trebinje, the two cultural institutions are starting an inter-institutional cooperation, and it will also be an opportunity for the public of this region, based on the selected works, to get acquainted with the creativity, individual development path of the artists and gain insight into the art scene of the city.
The focus on this topic was motivated by the intention to highlight the valuable contribution of women in the field of visual arts, but also by the personality, work and social engagement of Nadežda Petrović, a 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. It is precisely thanks to the Sićevo Colony, the Graphic Workshop, purchases and gifts from solo and collective exhibitions that the GSLU fund represents one hundred works by forty authors of different generations, stylistic orientations and artistic practices, which are a significant cultural heritage of the city.
Building their professional identity, women artists have mostly remained faithful to the medium of painting, drawing and graphics, with only a few sculptures being represented, with a noticeable lack of interest in research in the field of new media and photography. Heterogeneous in visual expression, approaches and reflections, within a given chronological framework, the works testify to movements in the art of southeastern Serbia, the openness of the environment to new phenomena and contemporary aspirations, and provide the possibility of comparison in a local and broader context.
With the narratives and poetics represented, the exhibition depicts diversity and presents artists as active actors on the scene, who, stimulated by intense events and changes in fine arts, with the undoubted influence of heritage and tradition, while remaining consistent with their style and vocabulary, followed prevailing tendencies, gladly applied new knowledge, researched and experimented with techniques and materials. 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, their contribution to the cultural sphere is valuable.
It is realistic to expect that female artists from Niš will soon, with the opportunities offered by modern technologies and scientific achievements in the field of art, along with communication and exchange with other cultural spaces, step into the world of new media, and that subsequent analyses and presentations will also include such types of research.
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 artists, whose works and engagement will one day, as part of the GSLU collection, encouraged by this, be the subject of new reflections and studies.
The exhibition will be open to the public until June 24th.
GRAPHIC WORKSHOP SIĆEVO 2025.
The participants of this year's Graphic Workshop 2025 are:
Susanna Doccioli / Italy/, Nikola Radosavljević /Užice/, Marija Anđelković /Belgrade/, Jelena Milićević /Belgrade/ and Aleksandar Dević /Niš/.
In the jubilee year when the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš marks 120 years since the founding of the First Yugoslav Colony Sićevo, the International Graphic Workshop Sićevo, as a newly founded colony, celebrates 20 years of its existence. By popularizing the graphic medium, this type of residency brings together significant names from both the Serbian and international art scenes, but also follows the development of young authors from the graphic world. The collection of graphic sheets in the Fund of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš now numbers over 200 graphic sheets, of various techniques and styles created only thanks to the Graphic Workshop.
From June 2 to 8, 2025, graphic artists will be staying in Sićevo in the Colony building. In addition to working in the workshop, exchanging personal experiences in the field of graphic techniques, and socializing, the artists will spend one day in the city of Niš and visiting cultural and historical landmarks and getting to know the tradition and culture of our environment.
Susanna Doccioli / Italy /, Susanna Doccioli was born and raised in Rome. To further her education in the field of graphics and graphic and visual communication at the prestigious I.S.I.A. Institute for Graphic Design, she moved to Urbino. While staying in Urbino, she joined the International Center for Graphic Arts - KAUS. Later, she continued her education in Berlin and Rome.2018. In 2011, she founded the Stamperia Ripa 69 Association with other graphic artists, of which she is the president and collaborates with various institutions and workshops in organizing exhibitions and workshops in teaching woodcut techniques and basic engraving techniques. Her works are in many private and public collections. In addition to her artistic engagement, she is also engaged in pedagogical work, but also works as an illustrator and designer for numerous well-known publishing houses in Italy.
Nikola Radosavljević /Užice/. He was born in Užice in 1991. He completed his undergraduate and master's studies at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. He received his doctorate in the field of new media graphic practices at the same faculty in 2020. He completed his second master's studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Department of Graphics, in 2022. He has received several awards and recognitions, including the Graphic Arts Triennial Award, Ural, Russia, the Grand Seal of the Graphic Arts Collective Gallery and the Golden Needle of ULUS, the Grand Prize of the International Graphic Arts Triennial in Krakow, Poland. He has participated in a large number of collective exhibitions in the country and abroad, as well as in many residency programs. So far, he has organized 38 solo exhibitions.
Marija Anđelković /Belgrade/, Serbian graphic artist born in 1988 in Belgrade. She completed her undergraduate and master's studies in Belgrade at the Department of Graphic Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, in the class of Professor Dragan Momirov. As part of a student exchange, she spent one semester in Krakow. She has been a member of ULUS since 2013. So far, she has organized eight solo exhibitions. She has exhibited at numerous collective exhibitions in the country and abroad. She has been awarded several times for her work. She has participated in several domestic and international art projects and graphic workshops. She was invited by the International Center for Graphic Arts in Ljubljana to lead a master class in lithography in 2024. Since 2018, she has been employed at the Center for Graphic Arts and Visual Research at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, as a printmaker.
Jelena Milićević /1992/ is a visual artist whose work includes graphics, illustration, and neon installations. She graduated and received her master's degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, where she completed her master's studies in the graphics department in 2016. After her studies, she worked as a lithographer at the Center for Graphic Arts and Visual Research "Akademija". She developed her artistic experience and skills through collaboration with artists from the region, Europe, and South America, as well as through participation in numerous workshops and exchanges. She has exhibited in numerous collective exhibitions and has organized eleven solo exhibitions, of which we highlight the exhibition in London in collaboration with Faww Gallery. Her works are in private and public collections in Serbia and Great Britain. In addition to graphics, she also illustrates books of newspaper articles. She lives and works in Belgrade.
Aleksadnar Dević /Belgrade/ born in 1954. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, where he also completed postgraduate studies in the Department of Graphics. He is a member of ULUS. He has participated in numerous collective exhibitions in the country and abroad. In recent years, he has been intensively involved in computer graphics. For a short time, he worked as a professor of computer graphics and graphic design at the Secondary Art School in Niš, as well as at the Faculty of Arts in the subjects of Graphic Communication and Prosthodontic Graphics. From 2000 to 2004, he was the director of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts in Niš. He has received numerous awards for his work. He has organized over ten solo exhibitions so far.
"Word and/or Image, Ethics and/or Aesthetics" by Irena Vuković
"Word and (or) Image, Ethics and (l) Aesthetics" by Irena Vuković - an artist from Podgorica. The exhibition consists of digital drawings printed on canvas, realized in the last five years.
Irena Vuković was born in 1975 in Titograd. She graduated from the Department of Graphic Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje, in the class of Professor Mile Grozdanić. She received her master's degree in 2020 from the same faculty with the thesis "Graphic Design of the Edition or the Artistic Autonomy of the Book". Since 2014, she has been working as a professor at the Secondary Art School "Petar Lubarda" in Cetinje. She has exhibited solo in Podgorica, Tivat, Herceg Novi, Pančevo, Vranje, Belgrade, Bijelo Polje. She has participated in numerous collective exhibitions, art and creative workshops in the country and abroad. She has been a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro since 2005. She won the "Good Design" award at the Novi Sad Book Salon (2008) for the graphic design of the "Nobel Prize" edition.
With an interdisciplinary approach, combining the experience of graphic design with painting and drawing, and applying modern technology in its implementation, Irena Vuković develops an indigenous opus based on original visual art and visuality that synthesizes text and image.
Personally, active reflection on contemporary social relations and circumstances opens up a wide range of psychological, ethical, and ultimately existential themes for Irena Vuković, which the artist interprets with a pronounced dose of humor, often with a bitter undertone. Supporting the form of comics, Irena mainly defines scenes in the form of dialogues between figures, often presented on a geometric background that is reminiscent of pixels of electronic images or graphics of old video games. Her figures are expressively caricatured in character with intense yet harmonious colors, and the texts they "pronounce" are either witty wordplay or verses whose form refers to traditional folk literature, while the content reflects contemporary vocabulary and situations.
Irena Vuković is the author of a special mental and emotional code and clear perceptions of the circumstances of her own time. Her works, as inspired visual testimonies of the "new normality" we live in and current models of behavior, provoke reflection on the perspective of living in conditions of shaken humanistic principles.
The exhibition will run until June 23.
GRAPHIC WORKSHOP ''SIĆEVO 2022-2024''
EXHIBITION OF GRAPHICS CREATED IN THE GRAPHIC WORKSHOP IN SIĆEVO 2022-2024, PAVILION IN THE FORTRESS
May 27 - June 22, 2025
For several years now, the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš, as a highly professional institution in Serbia, has been organizing the Graphic Workshop in the beautiful village of Sićevo near Niš.
Initiatives to equip the graphic workshop began in 2003 at the suggestion of Slobodan Radojković, then a master of graphics employed at the Gallery. One of the rooms within the building of the Art Colony "Sićevo" was converted into a graphic workshop, when a gravure printing press was purchased.
In 2005, the Gallery of Contemporary Art celebrated the centenary of the first gathering of artists in the Art Colony in Sićevo. Soon after, all the basic funds and necessary materials for work were secured, thus creating the conditions for the first gathering of four artists in September 2006. There are multiple reasons why the Gallery decided to establish a graphic workshop. First of all, it was noted that there were only two workshops of a similar nature in Serbia: in Smederevo (Graphic Studio of the Cultural Center) and Belgrade (Centre for Graphics and Visual Research "Academy"). The Centre for Graphics and Visual Research "Academy" at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade organizes a graphic workshop whose work is focused on the preservation and popularization of graphics, as well as monitoring the development of the medium itself. It was a role model, or one could say a model, for the creation of the Sićevo workshop. Also, in Niš there is an active association of artists "Niš Graphic Circle", which contributed and gave full support to the initiative itself. One of the important reasons is certainly the awareness that the workshop will constantly contribute to the addition of the collection of graphics within the fund of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts. It has been noticed that an increasing number of artists are committed to this medium, and that in addition to old graphic techniques they apply new, computer technologies, and that their understanding of graphics as a medium is much more flexible and modern.
Therefore, through the work program, the Graphic Workshop is focused, first of all, on the preservation of graphic art, but also on monitoring new tendencies of graphic print today. By popularizing this widely represented medium, the Gallery has already traditionally gathered significant names from the international artistic scene, but also follows the maturation of young authors from the graphic world. For the first three years, the Workshop was held twice a year (spring-autumn) for seven days, and since 2011 only at the end of spring.
The Graphic Workshop "Sićevo" gained an international character in 2008. So far, 90 artists from Niš, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, USA, Mexico, Canada, Italy have created and left their works for the collection of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts in the Graphic Workshop.
According to the workshop's statute and propositions, each participant of the Workshop leaves two gallery-format graphics in a circulation of five prints to the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts, and in return, the Gallery provides the artists with all the basic means for work, as well as accommodation, food and travel expenses. In addition to working on matrices, printing graphics in the studio, exchanging experiences, and demonstrating certain techniques, excursions were also organized so that participants could get to know the surroundings and sights of Niš better. A tour of the Sićevo Gorge, a large number of monasteries located in the immediate vicinity, as well as other cultural and historical buildings of Niš from different periods, certainly completes the artists' picture of the rich past of our city.
The collection of the Graphic Workshop now includes about 200 graphic sheets. Each of the artists who participated in the work of the Graphic Workshop "Sićevo" created graphics in the spirit of their already formed artistic expression. The variety of graphic techniques is another segment of the rich palette of graphic sheets from the Gallery's collection. Many of them were influenced by the natural beauty of the Sićevo Gorge itself, so they permanently recorded their impressions of the environment through their works (Biljana Vuković, Snezana Marinković, Vladimir Vlajić, Marta Božik, Branko Nikolov, Ivana Stanković, Zoran Kostić, Michel Barzen, Bojan Živić), others found inspiration in some details of the surroundings (Velizar Krstić, Jelena Sredanović, Ljubiša Brković, Magda Krolikovska, April Wilmer, Roberto Gianinetti, Ranka Lučić Janković, Veliko Maričevski, Marija Sibinović).
Works from the graphic workshop "Sićevo" were exhibited in Niš, Prokuplje, Leskovac, Valjevo, Pirot, Sofia, Kotor, Dimitrovgrad. The good reputation of the Graphic Workshop "Sićevo" is getting louder every year and we believe in the future of this event. The support of the cultural public, colleagues, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia give us hope that we are on the right track.
We must add that in 2020, a screen printing press with all the accompanying elements was provided in order to expand the activities of the colony participants and enable work in other graphic disciplines. With the purchase of a new press, the studio and graphic workshop premises were further renovated with an expanded and adapted space in the building of the art colony in Sićevo, so that decent conditions were created for work on both presses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKzmFPltaUw
"Center" by Andrea Moračan
Andrea Moračanin
"Center"
Lithographs and Projections
Salon 77, May 8 -June 1, 2025
On Thursday at 7 p.m., Salon 77 in Tvrđava will open an exhibition of lithographs and photo-projections by the younger generation artist Adrea Moračanin. The exhibition titled "Center" is the artist's first solo exhibition in Niš, and the gallery in the former Bali-beg mosque is a perfect fit for her recent artistic work. Namely, with a simple and precise system of straight, bright lines on a deep black surface, Andrea Moračanin defines the views of the interior of a residential building. Even if we don't know it, and this is her own childhood home, the development of the themes of temporality, eternity, or death, as Dr. Mina Rakidžić Dostanić notes, is clear. Therefore, the display of this graphic entity (and its extensions) in the space of a former religious building encourages the loading of a new value into the artist's work, which is the view of the home as a sanctuary.
Andrea Moračanin (Kraljevo, 1995) completed her undergraduate (2018) and master's (2019) studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, at the Department of Painting in the class of Prof. Dobrica Bisenić. She is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at the Department of Graphic Arts, FLU, under the mentorship of Prof. Vladimir Milanović. During her studies, she was a recipient of a scholarship from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and during her doctoral studies, a scholarship holder from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, where she was engaged as a student-researcher at the Department of Graphic Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade.
She has participated in over twenty group exhibitions in the country and abroad (Belgium, South Korea, Poland, Romania). In 2022, she stayed at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, as part of the "Start In Gdansk" project, where she completed a lithography course. In 2024, as part of the Erasmus+ project, she spent two months on a professional internship in Paris, as a printing assistant at the Michael Woolworth Atelier. She holds an art therapy certificate as part of the "Mad Balkans - transforming psychiatry through art" project organized by the Prostor Association from Belgrade and Oslo Metropolitan University.
EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS: BJELICA, CVETKOVIĆ, KOVAČEV
Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš
PAINTINGS EXHIBITION: BJELICA, CVETKOVIC, KOVAČEV
PAVILLION IN THE FORTRESS (April 29 - May 23)
A joint exhibition of three artists with different approaches, ideas and concepts is an opportunity for the art public to become more familiar with the diverse trends of our contemporary art.
IVANA BJELICA (Novi Sad, 1969) graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, Department of Painting, in the class of Professor Milan Blanuša. She has held over twenty solo exhibitions and has exhibited at over a hundred collective exhibitions in the country and abroad (Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Greece, Romania, Spain, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, Japan, India).
She has won several awards in the field of fine arts (drawing, painting, collage).
She is a member of SULUV, ULUPUDS and the Art Circle (Association of Artists of the Petrovaradin Fortress). She has participated in numerous art colonies, art expos and other art events. Her works of art are in numerous private, gallery and museum collections in Serbia and abroad. In addition to fine arts, she is involved in photography, graphic design and interior design. For many years, she was the editor of the art program of the Mali likovni salon gallery, Cultural Center of Novi Sad (2003-2007), she has realized a significant number of exhibitions of eminent artists from the country and abroad and has achieved successful cooperation with many cultural institutions.
He is the founder of the Lumens art association (2013), whose main goal is the development and promotion of contemporary fine arts and culture, international cooperation and education.
He is known to the Niš audience as a participant in the Sićevo Art Colony in 1978, 1994, 2019. The gallery in the Fund contains 6 works. He had a solo exhibition in 1982, and participated in the Niš Salon 2020.
He lives and creates as an independent artist in Novi Sad.
With a careful formulation of the plastic-poetic and aesthetic, he builds concise artistic wholes. At the center of her artistic research is nature or man in the environment in which we live, understanding the complex human destiny. The dynamic gesture and light-dark contrasts are not in the function of any drama, but rather serve to more clearly define space or ideas.
ALEKSANDAR CVETKOVIĆ (Aleksinac, 1947) graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1973, where he also completed his postgraduate studies in 1975. In five decades of creative work, he has organized nearly eighty solo exhibitions in the country and abroad, and participated in the selections of several hundred art events on almost all continents.
He has won a number of domestic and international awards and recognitions, including: Awards for painting at the October Salon in Belgrade in 1977 and 1988; Award at the International Drawing Exhibition in Nuremberg in 1979; First Prize at the YAVA Biennial in New York in 1980; Award at the Alexandria Biennial of Art in 1980; Golden Palette of ULUS in Belgrade in 1985; Politika Award in Belgrade in 1990; Awards at the Nadežda Petrović Memorial in Čačak in 1978 and 1990; Award for Painting at the Milena Pavlović Barila Memorial in Požarevac in 1985 and 1995; Award of the City of Belgrade Despot Stefan Lazarević for 2021, Recognition for Outstanding Contribution to National Culture in 2024. His works are in numerous museum and private collections in the country and abroad.
He is a member of ULUS. He lives and works in Belgrade.
Cvetković follows his own feelings and the sensibility of society in a special way with a deconstructed visual language. Having traveled a long way from hyperrealism through new expressionism, informel and pop art to liberal modernism, he continues to explore mythological and historical themes. In the process of forming new, metaphorical wholes, he introduces new materials, while simultaneously nurturing his own pictorial system, achieving highly aesthetic visual art.
ĐORĐE KOVAČEV (1947) graduated from the painting department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1972. In addition to painting, he is also involved in musical creativity in various genres. He lived and exhibited in Vienna, Austria from 1982 to 1986. He has had several solo and collective exhibitions. Currently, his permanent exhibition is in the “Kovačev” gallery in Čurug.
While still a student at the Academy of Fine Arts, working in a conservation team at the archaeological site of Lepenski Vir, he came into contact with objects and artifacts created by a man, a member of the Lepen culture. His interest in archaeology dates back to that time, and he deepened it even more during the period when, as a museum associate, he made drawings for documentation at the sites of Velesnica, Gomolava, etc.
In the meantime, he studied various anthropological studies on Amazonian tribes such as the Yanomame. He was particularly interested in the study of Aborigines conducted by Geza Rahaim in the 1930s.
As a result of all these experiences, a cycle of paintings, totems, sculptures, and objects was created, which he himself titled: From Churug to Churunga (Churunga is a well-preserved relic of great importance for the identity of Aboriginal tribes).
He lives and works as an independent artist in Churug.
Kovachev has a clearly defined concept in which he intertwines
Mila Guardiola ''INTERACTIONS''
On Tuesday, April 15, starting at 7 p.m., Salon 77 will host the opening of a solo exhibition by Mila Gvardiol, an artist from Belgrade. The exhibition features paintings from her latest production, which belong to the "Interactions" cycle.
Mila Gvardiol (Belgrade, 1979) graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts (2004) and received her doctorate from the Interdisciplinary Studies Department of the University of Arts in Belgrade (2012). She is an associate professor and dean at the Faculty of Digital Production in Sremska Kamenica. She taught at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade from 2015 to 2023. She has held more than 40 solo exhibitions in many cities in Serbia and Croatia. She has exhibited at over 200 collective exhibitions in the country and abroad. She has won 15 awards, including the ULUPUDS Annual Award (2018).
The thoughtful and intellectualized transformation of the scene from the macrocosm into the language of geometric forms and lines with a sensitive coloristic choice is the basis of Mila Guardiola's painting manuscript, while the original motif inspiration is recognized in the architecture of urban environments. The artist sublimates fragments of architecture to the level of basic geometric bodies and forms, neglecting the primary function of architecture and creating works that are abstract in terms of visuality and semantic ambiguity with emotional, psychological, or existential connotations.
Mila Guardiola's latest paintings from the "Interactions" series are dominated by massive cubes that resemble apartment buildings, but they are offset from their axis, slanted, disturbingly tilted, prone to falling. The artist mainly presents them from a lower angle, so that their tops are concentrated around a central whiteness as a light source, or the light source is displaced outside the canvas and illuminates the scene in the form of a prismatic beam. By varying the compositional approach, the way of treating light, and the color scheme (from darker, monochrome to lighter pastel), the artist artistically defines different states of interaction, which results in a variety of general impressions that range from the extreme drama of a high energy charge to the tranquility of the coexistence of subdued energy.
The exhibition of Mila Guardiola in Niš will last until May 6th.
EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS AND PROMOTION OF THE MONOGRAPH "MIROSLAV ANĐELKOVIĆ"
OFFICERS' HOUSING
We invite you to the opening of the painting exhibition and promotion of the monograph "Miroslav Anđelković" by Sonja Vukašinović, on April 10, 2025 at the Oficirski Dom Gallery, starting at 7 p.m. The promotion of the monograph will be attended by Emilija Ćoćić Bilić, director of the SLU Gallery Niš, Malina Radonjić, art historian, Sonja Vukašinović, museum advisor from the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš.
The retrospective exhibition - in memoriam of Miroslav Anđelković consists of a selection of about forty paintings from his rich legacy as well as a selection of works from the Fund of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš.
Miroslav Anđelković was born on April 6, 1945 in Jelasnica. After graduating from art school in Niš, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade. He graduated and received his master's degree in the class of Prof. Nedeljko Gvozdenović. He became a member of ULUS, Lada, and the Niš Graphic Circle.
Miroslav Anđelković entered the art scene in Serbia in 1970 with the exhibition "Generation 1969/70" and was noticed by art critics and professional audiences. He exhibited his work about 35 times and was awarded 11 times for his work. Abroad, he exhibited in group exhibitions in Luxembourg, Paris, Zurich, Basel, Lucerne, Aarau, Craiova, Veliko Tarnovo, Moscow, and Nitra.
He collaborated with prominent writers and poets from Niš. He provided drawings for many literary works, such as "People of God" by Bora Sranković, "Ibis Age" by Stevan Sremac, "White Stone" by Dragoljub Janković, Lyrical folk songs of the Timok region "Oh, how the old mountain", "Divinska Mycenae" by Radmilo Radovanović, while with Tomislav Mijović he published four books of a joint poetic-lyrical diary under the titles: "In the gentleness and solitude", "Shimmers of calling", "Javke odsjaji, ugarci", "Vreme na okupu", and he illustrated Stevan Raičković's work "Notes about Black Vladimir".
He began his working life as a professor, first at the Gymnasium in Leskovac and Niš, and then moved to the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts in Niš, first as a curator, artistic director and director. He then moved to the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, where he worked until his retirement as a full professor. In 2011, he was awarded the Grand Plaque with the Charter of the University of Belgrade. He participated in a large number of collective exhibitions in the country and abroad.
He passed away on April 15, 2021.
During his lifetime, he created over 400 paintings and countless drawings, watercolors, and graphics. The exact number is impossible to determine because the paintings have been stolen and a large number have remained in the permanent ownership of many institutions, museums, and galleries that have purchased his work or received it as a gift through participation in various art events and art colonies. His drawings adorn and illustrate many literary works. The family legacy includes 80 paintings and countless drawings and watercolors. Almost all of his work has been published in catalogues accompanying his solo and group exhibitions, and he has exhibited continuously for the past fifty years.
The development of his work has been accompanied by constant improvement and development without sudden leaps or drastic changes. The variety of colors changed depending on personal affinity and life circumstances, with the unlimited introduction of his emotional states and philosophical thoughts. Anđelković is inspired by nature, which he transposes. The paintings are dominated by a sensitively skillful harmony of the rational and the emotional, rich chromatic textures and visual parts, tonally harmonized with accents of warm and cold. His works exude strong emotion, which is presented through color but also strong expressive drawing.
Anđelković was one of the most attractive and versatile artists of Niš from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in Niš and Serbia. Through his active engagement at all levels of culture, he participated in the creation of the city's artistic and cultural life.
He exhibited his work 35 times, winning 11 awards. He participated in many famous art colonies in the former Yugoslavia.
Throughout his working life, he worked on the promotion and creation of the city's artistic life, as an academic artist, artistic director and later director of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš, but also through various juries, commissions, artistic councils, pedagogical work, following his artistic credo in the hope of achieving his goal. His work will remain permanently recorded and remembered not only in these areas but also beyond, because he left a deep mark in the history of artistic creation in our country.
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