Untitled_Drawings_100x70_2016

The Untitled series explores process, materiality, and artistic resistance through spontaneous and experimental practice. These works emerged within the walls of BIGZ—once the epicenter of Belgrade’s underground art scene—through constant reevaluation and transformation of visual expression. Working on identical 100 x 70 cm paper formats, I blurred the boundary between drawing and painting, continuously building up and erasing images in an unceasing process of adding and removing elements.

This method draws on my experience studying under Prof. Gordan Nikolić, whose experimental approach to painting shaped my understanding of pictorial process. However, rather than striving for refinement, my goal here was to preserve the rawness of expression. Each work underwent a cycle of constant interventions—introducing new elements, reducing, transforming, or completely erasing certain segments. The final outcome was never predetermined but rather emerged in the moment, as a spontaneous reaction and subconscious articulation of thoughts and emotions.

Visually, the Untitled series oscillates between transfiguration, pop iconography, and the raw energy of street art. This regression is not an escape but a deliberate artistic strategy. The works question the position of a young artist in a social context where professional integration seems impossible, while cultural institutions become increasingly inaccessible. Instead of attempting to adapt, these works become an ironic celebration of the very impossibility of artistic assimilation.

In this sense, Untitled functions as a critique of the system of artistic production—not through direct opposition but through subversion and play. The series challenges the ideological structures that define artistic success, highlighting the paradoxes of the contemporary art world: how critique is often absorbed into the system it opposes, how the balance between the underground and the institutional framework is navigated, and how the illusion of artistic autonomy is constantly questioned.

These works were created mostly during late-night hours, at a time when BIGZ itself was awakening—its clubs, studios, and artistic spaces coming to life. The atmosphere of this space, where art, music, and alternative culture merged into a dynamic whole, was crucial to the creative process. Yet, it became increasingly clear that BIGZ was changing—the utopia that once thrived within its walls was gradually fading, as the space transformed into something new. This awareness of change permeates the entire series, making it both a document of resistance and an acknowledgment of inevitable transformation. Untitled does not mourn the past but embraces the instability of artistic existence, suggesting that in the loss of one world, another is already taking shape.