About my works

The focus of my work are human beings and their interpersonal relations. I observe them from differing perspectives and am making my own, nuanced take. These topics excite me since my early childhood: one of the reasons is surely the fact I grew up in former Yugoslavia, the land which was falling apart at the time, and already then I perceived relations between people as one of the most complex and entangled phenomena in existence.

 

Swimming With Sharks, 2013. Oil on canvas, 35x45cm

Furthermore, I am interested in a simple human being and his position in the contemporary world. Similarly to Francis Bacon, who said: "I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail leaving its trail of the human presence... as a snail leaves its slime", I too am attempting to reach the human essence in my works. For that reason, I am trying to paint my experiences in life as faithfully as I can, which lead me to an important realization: the more true I remain to myself, the closer to the other one I get. People often recognize themselves in my works, and the basic human emotions we all feel: loneliness, love, pleasure, passion, sadness, desperation... Dealing with inner worlds interest me - a visualization of the invisible.

Fields of Dreams, 2013. Oil on canvas, 160x200cm

Life has never been as fast as it is nowadays, nor people so estranged and overwhelmed by all the images which surround us. So, what I really want is to give people a reason to pause, to reflect, to take a deep look into themselves. That is where the feelings are and that is what links us together. There we are the most vulnerable, there we are the closest to each other. Krzysztof Kieślowski once said:"There are too many things in the world which divide people, such as religion, politics, history and nationalism. If culture is capable of anything, then it is finding that which unites us (...) We all fear the same way and the same things. And we love in the same way. That's why I tell about these things, because in all other things I immediately find division."

                                  

Decomposition, 2012. Oil on canvas, 200x250cm

In all my works I use both figuration and abstraction. My aim is to give a few directions to the viewer, without revealing the final destination or becoming too illustrative. I want to reassess, to restate the figure instead. In order to achieve that I use abstraction, whether to destroy or fragment the figure, to melt it down or make it disappear in the space. Figures are often appearing from and then disappearing back into an abstract space, which causes the feeling of constant flow within the painting.
The space, however, I don't consider to be a classical background. For me, it represents the internal of the figures. The spaces and the figures in most of my works are one being.

In Limbo, 2012. Oil on canvas 160x200cm