A solo exhibition by Mirjana Đošić was opened in the gallery of the Kruševac Cultural Center. Follow the cataloque article by Biljana Jotić…
Viewed biographically, Mirjana Đošić (1981) is an artist active on the domestic contemporary art scene. Born in Trstenik, she graduated on Faculty of Fine Arts, department for painting (PhD). In her doctoral dissertation, she dealt with the topic The Phenomenon of Reflection as a Method of Her Own Artistic Research, which became the characteristic basis from which she develops her artistic expression and iconography. Member of Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (ULUS), as an independent artist, she mostly expresses herself artistically in the medium of paintings and collages, and in addition to active exhibition on the art scene, she is also present through the technique of murals and educational work with children and adults.
Perhaps it is through a biographical review that we can enter into the processes of expression recognizable for her exhibition activity so far. There is a long way from the idea to the realization and that process part is the specificity of an artist by which he stands out and becomes recognizable in the most visible form. What can we see in Mirjana’s paintings and collages? Primarily directed towards human, at first glance, the simplicity of thematic choice, almost to banality, motives that we recognize from everyday life, concrete and already known to the eye, hide layered social critique, which imposes itself as the first characteristic of the ideological basis that drives her artistic expression.
Emphasizing the isolation of the moment, she insists on its processing, which we can compare with the photographic frame, not only in terms of comprehensiveness, but also in terms of the way of artistic processing. It gives such shots of life a new context within appearance in visual form. Without the need to add, subtract or manipulate “reality” within the problem of painting, the artist places the work behind a visible, in the realm of idea and context, dual relationship to reality. It is in this field that the process of analytical approach to the motif begins and ends, which leads to the simplicity of the compositional solution. By playing with the visual effects of the world of painting, Mirjana in a unique way combines a dual approach to appearance. Driven on the one hand by internal needs, personal attitude towards existence and life, and on the other by the reflection of the exterior within the framework of the painting itself, the idea results in a sarcastic note of overemphasized dimension of detail.
So, in that field, there is a whole struggle in the domain of identifying one’s own consciousness in the imposed movements of the social order. From the individual to the society and vice versa from the collective consciousness to the individual, reflecting through irony, everything in the presence of sexuality provokes the experience, which puts the observer in an active role. Without referring to the comparative method of critique or analysis of the work in terms of direct reminiscences, at this point we should look at the characteristics of the artistic direction “Pop Art” which has similar elements in its basic driving ideas – ironic artistic commentary on things imposed by mass culture. Playing with the boundaries of the presence of the irrelevant and the banal in “high” art.ž
Mirjana uses the mentioned poetics, but approaches it from her own angle of the expanded repertoire of motives and reflections. The choice and manner of shaping and presenting the female figure can be directed on the feminist aspect, which fully corresponds to contemporary movements. It is also specific how she uses the motif of sunglasses, which he puts in the foreground and the only plan of the painting, through which he conveys the message about the banality of objects that are used every day and are practically taken for granted, and in which the combination of inner and outer is reflected. And, as if the thought is imposed that the artist expresses the depth of cognition through the need for better in us and around us, referring to the subtlety of feelings that are hidden deep inside us.
Biljana Jotić, art historian and curator
