The exhibition “Artists of Niš – a selection of works from the collection of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš” has opened at the “Čedomir Krstić” Gallery in Pirot, by Emilija Bilić, senior curator.
By presenting the works of Niš artists in Pirot, the two cultural institutions continue their long-standing fruitful inter-institutional cooperation, this time offering the audience of the Pirot region the opportunity to learn about the creativity and individual development path of artists whose origins or work biographies are linked to this region.
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 Art Colony Sićevo. It is precisely thanks to the Sićevo Colony, the Graphic Workshop, purchases and gifts from individual and collective exhibitions that the GSLU collection contains 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.
Through the narratives and poetics represented, the exhibition depicts diversity and presents female artists as active actors on the scene, who were stimulated by intense events and changes in the visual arts, with the undoubted influence of heritage and tradition, remaining consistent with their style and vocabulary, following prevailing trends, willingly applying new knowledge, researching and experimenting 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 Niš female authors 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 gives birth to new generations of young authors every year, 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 until November 27, 2025.