CAR Gallery is pleased to announce Another Race of Vibrations the first solo exhibition in the gallery of Serbian artist Nebojša Despotović (Belgrade, 1982) who presents for the occasion a selection of works belonging to the group The famous Fioi series produced in 2022. of works made and inspired by friends, colleagues and artists belonging to the private circle of the artist where the psychological deepening of the subjects portrayed is evident.
The selection of works presented in the gallery - compared to the previous ones which were characterized by a strong introspective narration - starts from real scenarios, lived scenes and real people, marking an important turning point in the artist's research and outlining a stylistic caesura with the previous production.
«Painting is also a practice - writes Andrea Busto - it is gymnastics and physical exercise, which is performed in front of the emptiness of the virgin canvas on which the images created by the color and composition gradually emerge. Nebojša Despotović he belongs to a generation of artists who, without problems, combine and combine the great masterpieces of art history with anonymous Instagram images. The citation technique is not present in his work, the appropriation technique is.
In his work, the idea of ​​taking possession of other images that come from extremely different worlds and systems is intrinsic. First of all, he is an informed artist. All the possible history of art appears in his work in stratified form even if not evident, to be clear he is not a citationist, he is a continuer of the "tradition" in which Picasso, Goya, Velázquez, Picabia, Munch, Tintoretto, Chagall are placed , Bacon, Morandi, El Greco, Tuymans and all those artists who, beyond the form, also work on the pictorial surface in a gestural and material way. A brushstroke that becomes a shape in a lip or in a leaf, perceptible as a sign, not only as an image, but also as a gesture, is the basis for understanding his work.
Despotović's works are inexorably detached from a recognizable context and, even if they all appear to us as extraneous to our lives, many speak of experiences that we recognize, resulting as reflected in a fogged but familiar mirror.
He mentally immerses himself in the story painted on the canvas, to then become estranged from it and, taking a step back, to assume the role of creator and therefore director of the scene. Theatre, painting, the person, the characters, the director and the actors, the roles and life, whether real or false, live in a mental and real ballet that expresses itself beyond the canvas/curtain/backdrop, beyond the studio of the artist, but also everything inside his mind".
Extract from the exhibition catalogue
Nebojša Despotović - The Golden Harp
curated by Andrea Busto, MEF - Ettore Fico Museum, Turin 2020
Nebojša Despotoviċ was born in Belgrade, Serbia in 1982. He graduated in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice after which he moved to Berlin. He currently lives and works between Treviso and Venice.
In 2011 he participated in the prestigious residency at the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation and was selected for the 54th Venice Biennale to represent the Italian Academies at the Arsenale. In 2014 he was a guest at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples for the talk entitled Still life of Nebojša Despotovic curated by Angela Tecce, director of the Castel Sant'Elmo Museum, and Eugenio Viola, Chief Curator at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá MAMBO. In 2015, the TRA Foundation - Treviso Ricerca Arte hosted the double solo show by Nebojša Despotović with Enzo Cucchi entitled The skin of the snake. In 2020, the Ettore Fico Museum in Turin presents its first monographic exhibition entitled The Golden Harp, curated by Andrea Busto.
He has participated in numerous exhibitions in public and private spaces, among which we recall the personal exhibitions at MEF-Museo Ettore Fico, Turin; ULUS galerija, Belgrade; Ierimonti gallery, New York; Triangle gallery, Moscow; 8Leben, Berlin; Boccanera Gallery, Trento/Milan. Recent group exhibitions include Eclectica, MEF - Museo Ettore Fico, Turin (2022); Who Killed Bambi? Contemporary Dolomites, New Space of Casso (2022); Danae Revisited, Francesco Fabbri Foundation, Pieve di Soligo (2021); Open Archipelago, Magazzini del Sale, Venice (2020); A Collection, MUSE - Science Museum, Trento (2020); XX Cairo Prize, Palazzo Reale, Milan (2019); VI Biennial of contemporary engraving and graphics, Civic Gallery of Bassano del Grappa (2019).