The formal opening of Ivica Aranđus’ exhibition will take place at the MCAM Gallery on Friday, February 9, 2024, at 7 PM.
At the opening, the exhibition curator Natalija Đuranović and artist Ivica Aranđus will speak.
The Line as a Continuous Flow of Emotion, Imprint, or Trace of the Moment
“In Ivica Aranđus’ paintings, every visual representation, focusing on the internal processes within the individual, depicts the surrounding reality and reflects onto the observer, who simultaneously merges with the overall experience of the seen. The contemporary world, the harsh present day, the reality in which we live, is marked in the paintings, visual interpretations of a mature and inspired artist. Everything affects him: the environment and people, personal experiences of life, and reality,” Đuranović emphasizes in the catalog accompanying the exhibition.
The curator also notes that the artist analyzes and re-examines the perspective of today through his authentic visual language.
“In a series of contrasts between good and evil, light and dark, he positions the characters of his representations, giving them roles, demystifying events shrouded in mystery, provocative scenes of the clerical clergy, before which we become witnesses to unfortunate events in society and the world around us. Through an empathetic relationship with people and the way he perceives substance—the essence of being—he transposes figurative representations, colored with dark and light tones and contrasts, where seemingly dark scenes, shrouded in shadows, sometimes emerge, enhancing the drama of the action.”
The artist emphasizes that at the beginning of his creative work, one of the main driving forces was Dostoevsky and Nietzsche.
“They somehow took the deepest root in my spirit. As a young artist, Nietzsche appealed to me as a rebel, the greatest shocker among philosophers, an anti-philosopher who does not develop his thoughts systematically but pours them out in a poetic form, in the form of aphorisms. A contradictory expression, in contrast to other system thinkers and creators of the world’s image and man’s role in it. He elevates man from the Christian slave morality and meaningful schemes and transforms him into a liberated superman who has found refuge in himself.”
“Painting was my lifeboat, my compass, and my wind. Therefore, I can say that Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, with the Grand Inquisitor and other works, laid the foundation of my creativity on which I construct my art,” said Aranđus.
The exhibition is open to the public until March 31, 2024.