Nemanja Golijanin

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October 30th – November 15th

Mirror Image(s): On the exhibition “Naked lunch” by Nemanja Golijanin

How can we talk about intimacy today, having in mind the context of a daily exposed life on social networks and utterly perverted public-private relationship? In the ‘selfie’ era and absolute dominance of photography and video in documenting our being, how is the concept of visual self-representation in painting structured and how can we talk about the particularities of somebody’s area of identity? Some answers are offered by Nemanja Golijanin’s current series of works, which as the author says, conclude an intense phase of research and forming his own artistic direction. Firstly with drawing and gradually shifting to canvas, Golijanin conceives his artistic practice not only as representations of intimate experiences of a direct “everydayness”, but additionally constitutes them as a permanent field of self-reflection through representing a sequence of diverse visual sensations, drawn from living and going through a particular reality.

Through fragments of material manifestations of the world that surrounds him, in objects, appearances, situations and the associations between them, the artist engages with the emotional and psychological dimension of his own existence. Often using self-portrait as a field of self-contemplation, Golijanin additionally emphasizes the introspective content of his work and finds the potential to communicate it through the symbolic possibilities of every structuring element forming the visual whole. 

The playful line and intense chromatic palette are all a part of depicting the artist’s sensitivity, vibrant personality and bright perception of life. The particular style of drawing and painting reveal the very character of Golijanin’s work to the viewer, as the projection of a certain spirit on one hand and a contemplative gaze into the immediacy of life on the other. However, the artist’s works do not imply the act of escapism or finding a way out of the harsh social reality, but first and foremost place another mode of our existence in the hub; that which is in the end reflected in each of our own desires, choices, decisions, fascinations…

Text: Miroslav Karić
Photo: N. Ivanović