"I'm not doing a portrait, I'm doing a painting. "Henri Matisse
Our meeting with Kosta now goes back more than 10 years, it has been years since we wanted to work with him on a major project that is part of a series of exhibitions that travel the world (Hawaii - Los Angeles-Paris).
Son of an architect, grandson of a pope (Orthodox Christian priest), having grown up in France with the torments of the Yugoslav conflict as a family backdrop, Kosta has built himself in a world where beauty, violence, belief, hope and mysticism come together. He is, in 2012, one of the initiators of the sub-realist movement, together with the Serbian artist Vuk Vidor and the French artist Stéphane Pencréac'h, set up in reaction to the conceptualization of contemporary painting: for these artists, the image must take precedence over the idea and not the other way around.
His old works, a mixture of mysticism, violence and dualism, showed a reversal of values, a world in which women have taken over men, and indulge in the most terrible crimes in a playful atmosphere. With " HAWAII EPIPHANY ", Kosta Kulundzic exposes the outcome of her latest pictorial research. Powerful works, portraits of Hawaiian daily life, masterfully interpreted by the artist, where figurative realism and expression of his personal introspection are mixed. This dualism, so present in his previous exhibitions, seems to have moved into a more secondary part of the composition, while remaining incredibly present.
The dualistic gnosis is preponderant in Kosta's work. It brings us to a reflection on the place of ugliness and violence in our modern societies, in opposition to the beauty of nature and youth (or the couple religion/violence versus the practice of surfing in paradisiacal islands).
This duality, which is omnipresent in Kosta Kulundzic's work, allows her to paint family portraits that are an integral part of her research. "The family portrait" is a new facet of the expression of her art.
And it is an honor for us to have the chance to realize a monograph of this period with him.
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