ChasingRainbows_TransformatorGallery_2022

In 2022, I presented my exhibition Chasing Rainbows at Transform Art Gallery in Belgrade, in collaboration with Kulturforum, a platform dedicated to fostering independent artistic and cultural initiatives. This project was a deeply personal exploration of a new digital utopia—an imagined reality where, through animation and self-portraiture, I attempted to grasp something elusive, like chasing a rainbow—a metaphor for the search for meaning, fulfillment, and fleeting moments of joy.

In this abstract digital world, amorphic shapes surround me—soft, fluid, and vibrant. They create the illusion of warmth and safety, a paradise-like space that stands in stark contrast to the harshness of reality. Yet, this dreamlike transformation is also an escape, revealing an underlying dystopian thread hidden beneath the childlike aesthetics of my world. This contradiction—between utopia and illusion—extends into my paintings as well.

Rather than adhering to traditional painting methods, I sought to push the boundaries of the medium itself. The shapes I create do not merely exist as painted forms; they define the very structure of the artwork. By designing custom-shaped frames and stretching the canvas over them, I detach painting from its conventional rectangular format, allowing these forms to gain their own spatial autonomy. In doing so, painting no longer functions merely as a depiction of an imagined reality but becomes part of the world it portrays, blurring the line between physical and digital realms.

At the heart of the exhibition was Chasing Rainbow, a looped animation in which I appear as a digital avatar, endlessly running and flying through this imagined world—perpetually pursuing something just out of reach. This piece encapsulates the tension between the pursuit of utopia and the impossibility of ever fully attaining it. You can explore more about this work here.

But I ask—if this world exists within imagination, does that make it any less real?