Ivo Nikić | Beyond Boundaries

September 22 - October 27, 2023

Solo Show:

Interactive Art by the Renown Artist

EXOgallery proudly presents a multidisciplinary show with analogue interactive art, installations and paintings.

We are proud to host a solo exhibition by a renowned artist Ivo Nikić “Beyond Boundaries,” an immersive art exhibition that delves into the fascinating realm of his captivating expressive language. Within this vibrant collection of multidisciplinary works, we invite you to embark on a journey of discovery, where traditional representations give way to the expressive power of form, color, texture, and allegory.

At the heart of Ivo’s oeuvre lies a departure from the tangible world, allowing him to communicate through non-representational means. Through bold brushstrokes, seemingly incidental spray paint, gestural marks, geometric forms, scribbles, symbols, and hidden elements, the artist transcends the boundaries of the visible and recognised. His artworks evoke hidden emotions, provoke intime thoughts, and ignite the imagination.

Ivo interconnects elements known from the old masters (Hironimus Bosch, Rembrandt) with modern art such as scribbles by Cy Twombly, mixes street art and the idea of samples identified with hip hop music and adds to it all a pinch of humour.  As a result, his artworks liberate feelings and unlock deeply rooted emotions that come into our conciseness only when allowed to fly.

In this world, viewers are invited to experiment with his interactive pieces, playing with magnetic elements to allow new interpretations. The mobile elements, praised in the press as “Nikic”, after the name of the artist, can be easily removed, de-placed, and resorted only to be put back on the canvas creating an apparent new work of art.

In his grand installations the big circles and his handmade horse attire sprayed in pink paint bring connotation with sensual emotions. The massive headgear initially designed for his solo exhibition ‘Pimp my horse’, alongside the smaller pieces in the changed scenography of an art gallery gain subconsciously a different meaning.

The exhibition aims to inspire contemplation, as viewers are encouraged to delve into the inner workings of each artwork, deciphering its intricate layers of meaning. Experience the joy of discovery as you navigate the uncharted territories of the subconscious and allow your own interpretations to unfold.

Exhibiting Artist

Ivo Nikić

Ivo Nikić (born in 1974 in Pristina, now Kosovo), is a multidisciplinary artist; his work includes painting, photography, installations, objects, video and actions in urban space.

He is interested in the urban landscape, corporeality, music, waste, and aesthetic jumble. He draws from street-art style – stencils and spray paint – which he combines with the technique of lasering and texture painting. Ivo has developed mobile paintings with magnetic paint patches that can be rearranged on the picture plane.

Ivo plays with connotations und undertone, dismantles the world into basic elements, questions ready-made solutions, re-evaluates categories of beauty and ugliness.

In 2003 he graduated in painting at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, PL in the studio of Prof. Jaroslaw Modzelewski. Since then, he’s be an active prolific artist. In 2006 he was an Artist-In-Residence fellow in Bern, Switzerland. He has participated in numerous group and individual exhibitions in Poland (CCA Ujazdowski Castle, BWA Zielona Gora, Studio Gallery, Arsenal Gallery in Poznan, Focus Łódź Biennale) and in the world (among others: Humboldt Berlin, Umspannwerk; Bat-Yam International Biennale of Landscape Urbanism in Israel; Rotor in Graz, Tokyo Fashion Week, in 2023 takes part in Autostrada Biennale in Kosovo).

Ivo lives and works in Warsaw, PL.

Events

Opening Reception: Friday, September 22, 2023, 7 – 9pm

Introduction by Maximilian Lehner

Maximilian Lehner is a curator, author and researcher and currently Associate Curator of the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts. He is co-founder of The Real Office in Stuttgart, curated exhibitions for the Salzburg Kunstverein, aqb (Budapest), Škuc Gallery (Ljubljana), Fünfzigzwanzig (Salzburg), Nova Baza (Zagreb), sehsaal (Vienna), and ElectroPutere (Bucharest), and writes for Artforum and BLOK Magazine, among others. In 2022 he was Critic-in-Residence at the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory. From 2016-2022 he was a university assistant at the Institute for Art in Contemporary Contexts and Media at KU Linz. He studied art theory and philosophy in Paris, Stuttgart, and Linz, where he is currently pursuing a PhD, and has participated in curatorial courses at the Salzburg Summer Academy and ECCA Cluj, and CuratorLab 2023 at Konstfack Stockholm. 

Art Performance: Sunday, October 15, 2023, 5 – 7pm

Ivo Nikic and Silvia Passera

Silvia, an Austrian born actress, is well known to Stuttgart audience through her performance at the Tri-Bühne Theatre in the plays “Snowden 3.3” or “Miststück”. Silvia is also a professor at the Stuttgart Academy for Music and Drama (HMDK). The actress is actively participating in various artistic projects and charity work.

Together with Ivo they will interpret newly organised interactive artworks and get the audience let their fantasy run free.

Selected Artworks

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Video

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