IVO NIKIĆ Black Humour

IVO NIKIĆ Black Humour Ivo Nikić, Untitled, acryl on canvas, 130 x 100, 2015

exhibition at Wizytująca Galeria [Visiting Gallery] and Fundacja Supermarket Sztuki [Art Supermarket Foundation] Opening: 15th October 2015, at 7 p.m. Warsaw, 88 Grzybowska Str. the exhibition will be open till 21st November 2015 Tuesday-Friday 2-7 p.m. Saturdey 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. or on demand Wizytująca Galeria T: [+48] 602 489 583 E: tu@tugaleria.pl www.tugaleria.pl Fundacja Supermarket Sztuki T: [+48] 502 602 718 E: a-z@supermarketsztuki.art.pl www.supermarketsztuki.art.pl Ivo Nikić s exhibition at the Visiting Gallery and the Art Supermarket Foundation presents (previously unshown) paintings from the years 2013-2015 and a site-specific installation, Safe Grate, on the façade of the gallery building. The motif of the grating can be found in many of the artist s works. This time it appears in the context of the place of presentation and of actual bars installed in the windows. There also appears in the work another characteristic motif used by Nikić an irregular shape, cut out in soft linoleum, that, multiplied and shone through by the sun, creates a play of light and shadow. The artist uses black to counter the installation s lightweight and elusive quality, achieving an effect of rarefying and condensing space. The show s title, Black Humour, is a reference to the disturbing mood of the artist s works, evoked by puzzling/ambiguous arrangements of motifs, alluring sensuality, aesthetic clashes, and dark colour schemes.

Ivo Nikić was born in 1975 in Pristina. In 2003, he graduated in Painting in the studio of Prof. Jarosław Modzelewski at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He is an author of paintings, photographs, installations, objects, videos, and actions in urban space. Interested in the cityscape, corporeality, music, inner dirt, trash, and aesthetic dissonances, he draws on street art styles stencils and spray paint which he combines with glazing and texture painting; sometimes he uses magnetic paints to fix mobile elements to the surface of the canvas. Inspired by the musical technique of sampling, he surprises the viewer with juxtapositions of motifs, aesthetic nonchalance, a sense of (black) humour. He evokes an atmosphere of dread, highlighting shapes out of darkness, patches that are traces of man s physical existence. He plays with associations, dismantling the world, questioning ready-made answers, revaluating the categories of beauty and ugliness. Selected solo exhibitions: 2015 Domino Effect, BWA Zielona Góra 2014 Nadawanie znaczenia, Galeria Promocyjna, Warsaw 2013 Co się stało, to się (nie)odstanie, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw 2011 Wentyl, Galeria Senatorska, Warsaw 2009 Łapacz kurzu, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw 2006 Napisy końcowe, Galeria Program, Warsaw, 2006 Selected group exhibitions: 2015 Nie/dopasowanie, Wizytująca Galeria & Art Supermarket Foundation, Warsaw 2013 The Artists Festival, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, 2013 2012

Fluxus, Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznań WRO Media Art Biennale, Wrocław 2011 Mural, Düsseldorf Survival Festival of Young Art in Experimental Conditions, Wrocław 2010 W poszukiwaniu szczęścia, Galeria Arsenał, Poznań Fokus Łódź Biennale 2009 II Festival Sztuki Młodych Przeciąg, Zamek Książąt Pomorskich, Szczecin SIEGesIKONEN / Icons of Victory transform, Humboldt Berlin Umspannwerk 2008 tit.for.tat. Counter Images for Transcultural Thinking and Acting, rotor, Graz But-Yam International Biennale of Landscape Urbanism, Israel Artist-run Art Fair, Stockholm (with szu szu) Control and Resistance on the Street, Context Gallery, Belgrade (with szu szu) Survival Festival of Young Art in Experimental Conditions, Wrocław Intruzart, BWA Zielona Góra 2007 [in klud], [in klud]altar, [in klud]infekcja, [in klud]2, Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków 2006 [in klud]2, Temps d images Festival, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (with szu szu) Transformation, Center for Contemporary Art, Novi Sad in'klud infektion, Galeria Arsenał, Poznań Szu szu meets Kunst-fu, Centrum Sztuki PROGR, Bern Videokunst aus Pollen, Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung, Berlin 2005 Supermarket Sztuki V/1. Toleruj mnie, Biennale of Young European Art, Galeria Program, Warsaw Art Fair, Preview Berlin, Berlin Polkolore, Kunstlerhaus, Stuttgart 2004 Last Few Days of Laboratory Space, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw Nova Polska 70-80, Maison Folies, Lille

Ivo Nikić, Untitled, acryl on canvas, 130 x 110, 2015 Nikić is a co-founder (with Piotr Kopik and Karol Radziszewski) of the collective szu szu (founded in 2001), which operates in urban space and at the intersection of art and the non-artistic world. The highly ironic group organises ephemeral events, one-time actions, and exhibitions of their own and other artists work. He was an artist in residence in Bern, Switzerland, in 2006. In 2013, in a fire at Warsaw s Praga district, he lost his studio with his entire artistic output to date. He lives and works in Warsaw.

Organizers Honorary Patronage: Republic of Serbia Embassy in Warsaw media partners: Partner of the gallery: Wizytująca Galeria ul. Grzybowska 88 00-840 Warszawa tel.: 602 489 583 e-mail.: tu@tugaleria.pl www.tugaleria.pl Fundacja Supermarket Sztuki ul. Grzybowska 88 00-840 Warszawa tel.: 502 602 718 e-mail.: a-z@supermarketsztuki.art.pl www.supermarketsztuki.art.pl