Kulter. #22

Opening 5<18th December, 2010

OPENING REPORT KULTER #22: VISA FOR TRANSIT
“ Painting is about paint”

Zwarte Klaas and Witte Piet, paved the way for a very special exhibition at Kulter last Sunday. After the obligatory children’s gifts and reading for Sinterklaas, we moved on to the opening of Kulter#22: Visa for Transit.

Three Serbian artists: Branislav Nikolic [1970, paintings], Ivan Grubanov [1976, paintings] & Nikola Markovic [1979. mixed media], visit Amsterdam after meeting curator Julie Dassaud in residency in Jalovik, a small village just outside Belgrade, where each year artists are invited to work and exhibit. The paintings on display are all made during this residency.

Maybe the reader would now expect an exposé on references to the near past of former Yugoslavia. But no... this is contemplative work, based on monochrome palets of pink, grey or white. So if you would ask your humble reporter, what the work is about, he would paraphrase the , Austrian/ English painter Lucian Freud:“The work is about paint”.

Kulter shows how small encounters can lead to something, maybe not the most spectacular or happening exhibition, but very sincere and personal.

Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of the emerging Serbian art scene, since these artists no longer need Visa for travelling around in Europe. Or we will all travel to Jalovik in the summer of 2011.

VISA FOR TRANSIT | 5<18th December, 2010

Branislav Nikolic [1970]
Ivan Grubanov [1976]
Nikola Markovic [1979]

3 Serbian painters
A scarce occasion for Dutch audience to tap into the current art production from Serbia, especially out of the mainstream institutions. The exhibition called "Visa to Transit", although in a rather small format, shows artists born in 70's ('70, '76, '79) who have been facing and confronting various challenges of the painting medium they met at the beginning of their professional carriers.

Some of them, B. Nikolic and I. Grubanov, studied in the Netherlands, at the Dutch Art Institute and Rijks Academy respectively.

The exhibition is a result of independent initiatives and exchange with Serbian art scene players since several years.