EXHIBITIONS
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EXHIBITIONS
Every day we face the challenges of the world navigating ourselves through the multiple vertigos that appear in front of us. Collectively and together or individually and inward–regardless which approach we choose, art remains one of the greatest navigational tools at our disposal; generating new perspectives, offering different points of view and sometimes resulting in additional vertigos as well.
The premier exhibition at Monolog Gallery for Contemporary Art embarked on a cycle of vertigos prompted by the artworks of Vera Klimentyeva and Jelena Micic: precious and precise on one hand, tactile and organic on the other.
Vera Klimentyeva is part of the generation of young Russian artists who use their art to put their fingers in the political, religious and social wounds of their home country. Questioning of patriarchal power structures and the role of a traditional Orthodox church in today‘s society are thematic fixed points in Klimentyeva‘s oeuvre.
Her artistic positions range from diverse printing techniques to digital media to plastics and classic painting. Her work is characterized by deconstructive elements, fictitious realities and the implantation of traditional representations into contemporary contexts. After studying at the Moscow University of Printing Arts (2005-2008) with Alexander Livanov, Vladimir Tzepilov and Vladimir Kosynkin, Klimentyeva moved to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in the class of Prof. Erwin Bohatsch (2008-2014). After completing her diploma, she manifested her position as an uncomfortable mirror of society in numerous exhibitions in Austria, Russia, Serbia and Poland.
Klimentyeva‘s works are part of private and public collections in Germany, Austria, Russia, the USA and Canada.
Jelena Micic began her years-long focus by collecting dust from the institution of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna („Održavanje slika“, 2016), and then from the grounds in Eastern Serbia („Paleta moga kraja“, 2017), presenting at the Youth Biennale an installation made of pigments from households („Hvatač boje“, 2019-2022).
In her practice, the observation of a certain material and color as its appearance is parallel to artistic and social activism aimed at questioning the role of workers in the exhibition space, as well as inviting the participation of visitors through direct experience of the material. From cleaning products („Đuskanje kraj bazena“, 2021), to local water („Politički kič“, 2021), Micic turns her artistic practice towards dealing with everyday problems and the conditioning of social participation.
She is interested in researching the various cultural and socio-political aspects of color and combat systems. Her art-research practice includes fieldwork and the collection of visual material. Using the method of appropriation of the everyday, Jelen Micic’s work often takes over selected patterns of human behavior and actions that indicate their presence.
The positions by Vera Klimentyeva were presented in a delicate, minimalistic series, are created from rare materials, using traditional techniques of icon painting. On the other hand, the works by Jelena Micic originate from everyday commodities, such as crocheted stripes of plastic trash bags. Both creative processes are based on established methods involving artisanal skills, engaging with aspects of materiality and resources, and questioning social and societal roles. Icon painting, for centuries an inaccessible field of work for female artists, and crocheting, a technique historically defined as predominantly female labour, are transformed from a stereotypical view into a contemporary statement of female self-determination.
Denis Leo Hegic and Jan Gustav Fiedler
Curators
Connecting precious and worthless materials >> Beta
Monolog gallery was inaugurated by showing two artists from Serbia and Russia >> 24 Sedam
Vertigo in Monolog >> Kaleidoskop
