Nebojša Despotović | All our lives

Despotović’s painting is intimate, familiar and introspective.

In recent years, the Serbian artist has set aside the gigantic archives of images that have long inspired his work, and begun to work with the reality that is closest to him, and everyday life.

It is his most recent works that form the basis of the exhibition at the Galleria Civica di Trento, curated by Gabriele Lorenzoni and Daniele Capra. There are 14 pieces on exhibit, all created in recent years and never before exhibited, plus a large, monumental polyptych produced specifically for the occasion: Nel giardino della mia vita [In the Garden of My Life], consisting of four large painted panels. Here, the artist moves away from the synthetic, anti-realistic colours and textured painting so prevalent in his work and turns to shades of sepia and black and white. On the contrary, the restless, disjointed compositional structure remains unchanged.

His recent recurring subjects are members of his own family: the exhibition, conceived as an emotional and intellectual continuum, recounts the non-linear transition between mourning the recent loss of his mother and the life he shares with his family. This dual temporal and emotional axis – past and present, mother and daughters – is not represented as a simple comparison of eras, but as a complex stratification of identities and perspectives on the world.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue that will be published by Mart, with contributions from curators Gabriele Lorenzoni and Daniele Capra and a dialogue between the artist and journalist Marina Lalović, Rainews24.

Source: https://www.mart.tn.it/