HSoA Gallery
DIVERSITY
28 August - 13 September 2019
Private View 11 September
I am delighted to be exhibiting the work of Nevena Simovic in the HSoA Gallery.
Simovic’s work is inspired by everyday surroundings and landscapes. The pieces incorporate simple materials alongside traditional paints, colour combinations and ceramic materials, these offer a growing complexity, exploring expressions found in ‘the round’ blurring nuances of space and questioning scale.
Cotton thread, fabric and photographs are transformed through collage techniques onto printed canvas, they create artworks that blur the boundaries between the two disciplines, becoming entwined within the realm of critical spatial practice. A highly personal and innovative practice.
Isabel H Langtry, Principal HSoA
DIVERSITY
28 August - 13 September 2019
Private View 11 September
I am delighted to be exhibiting the work of Nevena Simovic in the HSoA Gallery.
Simovic’s work is inspired by everyday surroundings and landscapes. The pieces incorporate simple materials alongside traditional paints, colour combinations and ceramic materials, these offer a growing complexity, exploring expressions found in ‘the round’ blurring nuances of space and questioning scale.
Cotton thread, fabric and photographs are transformed through collage techniques onto printed canvas, they create artworks that blur the boundaries between the two disciplines, becoming entwined within the realm of critical spatial practice. A highly personal and innovative practice.
Isabel H Langtry, Principal HSoA
A review of the exhibition
DIVERSITY
by Mia Simovic
Blue, red and orange planes of abstraction superimposed on a cobalt sky are held in conversation by a black thread which weaves across the canvas, pausing momentarily in a spiral formation, hovering above a brooding black landscape below; Nevena Simovic’s “Kites” seem to embody the essence of her exhibition at the Hampstead School of Art. This piece comments on the urgencies of life. A dialectic is imposed by the cross references between shape, colour and texture, and by the loose brush strokes which invoke a dynamism and a transiency; it is a time capsule for a world that is in a perpetual state of change.
“Diversity” is playful in its presentation; the pieces are scattered over the wall non-linearly and at loose adjacencies. Simovic’s mixed media work is a performance of texture and tone that speak together through a multitude of images and narratives that jump out of the black frames. Given the small space, the works are curated to good effect. The audience’s eyes are drawn up and down across the wall in oscillating motions, mimicking the rolling 3-dimensionality of the pieces. However, this eccentricity is offset by the contemplative nature of Simovic’s ceramics which are arranged on white plinths. Predominantly coloured with blue, beige and grey glazes, they offer a sense of tranquility; they are curved and rotated, implying the infinite through spiral creases and glossy sheens.
“Art is inescapably political, it is produced in a place, a time, by a person with experiences, with opinions, and with insecurities, and equally it is interpreted by people who suffer from the same preconditions yet who are diverse in their histories …this is where the title of my exhibition comes from. It refers to my work, its compositions, colors, geometries and styles, but also the multitude of interpretations and the life experiences that are broadcast onto the work by the audience” - Nevena Simovic
Simovic acknowledges the palpably environmental dimension of her work that, like all artwork, lies in its creation and interpretation. However, her work is a powerful psychological entity; it documents her most intimate thoughts and impulses, and reads as a narrative of everyday intuitions and long-term sensations of loss, self-remedy and renewal of self-confidence over time. The subject matters of her pieces emerges after completion; it is an intuitive act of imagination that generates, but the external influences that finally dictate an absolute meaning. For example, her ceramic plate “Iceberg”, seems to represent the creepy normalcy and eerie stillness of glacial retreat. She seems to tease the audience with the caption “the ice is melting, and its melting fast!”, a reference to the alarming rates of climate change, but which is ironically repealed by the static simplicity of the image; it is an ecological comment and a warning.
“Art brings together all disciplines; geography, economics, politics and more, and frames then using visual techniques in order to generate an awareness or present a particular perspective in a dynamic light”. – Nevena Simovic
Simovic’s exhibition is one that simultaneously touches the intimacies, impulsivities and the irrationalities of day to day existence, yet through named subject matter directs the audience’s interpretations in order to highlight the urgencies of contemporary problems and individual responsibilities as members of wider society. “Diversity” is a pulsating vision, and is successfully curated to match its multifaceted energies. Simovic’s artistic proficiency is indisputable; the exhibition is a pleasure to visit.
DIVERSITY
by Mia Simovic
Blue, red and orange planes of abstraction superimposed on a cobalt sky are held in conversation by a black thread which weaves across the canvas, pausing momentarily in a spiral formation, hovering above a brooding black landscape below; Nevena Simovic’s “Kites” seem to embody the essence of her exhibition at the Hampstead School of Art. This piece comments on the urgencies of life. A dialectic is imposed by the cross references between shape, colour and texture, and by the loose brush strokes which invoke a dynamism and a transiency; it is a time capsule for a world that is in a perpetual state of change.
“Diversity” is playful in its presentation; the pieces are scattered over the wall non-linearly and at loose adjacencies. Simovic’s mixed media work is a performance of texture and tone that speak together through a multitude of images and narratives that jump out of the black frames. Given the small space, the works are curated to good effect. The audience’s eyes are drawn up and down across the wall in oscillating motions, mimicking the rolling 3-dimensionality of the pieces. However, this eccentricity is offset by the contemplative nature of Simovic’s ceramics which are arranged on white plinths. Predominantly coloured with blue, beige and grey glazes, they offer a sense of tranquility; they are curved and rotated, implying the infinite through spiral creases and glossy sheens.
“Art is inescapably political, it is produced in a place, a time, by a person with experiences, with opinions, and with insecurities, and equally it is interpreted by people who suffer from the same preconditions yet who are diverse in their histories …this is where the title of my exhibition comes from. It refers to my work, its compositions, colors, geometries and styles, but also the multitude of interpretations and the life experiences that are broadcast onto the work by the audience” - Nevena Simovic
Simovic acknowledges the palpably environmental dimension of her work that, like all artwork, lies in its creation and interpretation. However, her work is a powerful psychological entity; it documents her most intimate thoughts and impulses, and reads as a narrative of everyday intuitions and long-term sensations of loss, self-remedy and renewal of self-confidence over time. The subject matters of her pieces emerges after completion; it is an intuitive act of imagination that generates, but the external influences that finally dictate an absolute meaning. For example, her ceramic plate “Iceberg”, seems to represent the creepy normalcy and eerie stillness of glacial retreat. She seems to tease the audience with the caption “the ice is melting, and its melting fast!”, a reference to the alarming rates of climate change, but which is ironically repealed by the static simplicity of the image; it is an ecological comment and a warning.
“Art brings together all disciplines; geography, economics, politics and more, and frames then using visual techniques in order to generate an awareness or present a particular perspective in a dynamic light”. – Nevena Simovic
Simovic’s exhibition is one that simultaneously touches the intimacies, impulsivities and the irrationalities of day to day existence, yet through named subject matter directs the audience’s interpretations in order to highlight the urgencies of contemporary problems and individual responsibilities as members of wider society. “Diversity” is a pulsating vision, and is successfully curated to match its multifaceted energies. Simovic’s artistic proficiency is indisputable; the exhibition is a pleasure to visit.
Details of the artist's work in collages / mixed media and ceramic
