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Thrust Projects is thrilled to present a solo exhibition of new work by Jelena Tomasevic, opening Sunday, January 22, 2006 through March 14, 2006. Entitled Joy Of Life II, the show is the suite to Joy of Life, a series of paintings exhibited in the Serbia/Montenegro Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennial. Jelena Tomasevic’s twenty or so paintings of figures, interiors, and architectural models are taken from her personal photographic archive, magazines, and newspapers. The canvases, each approximately 28 x 35 inches, are hung flat on the wall, and the effect is an installation of individual storyboards. Influenced by film directors such as Jean-Luc Goddard and Lars Van Trier, these paintings Tomasevic explain, emphasize the human need for the meaning of life, whatever it may be. Intimate interior scenes of home are placed adjacent to figures strolling outside; in one image a man with an electrical cord around his neck is joined by a woman staring nonchalantly out at the viewer. Death and life, violence and humor, joy and sadness exist in a new, sometimes sinister and engaging reality. Jelena Tomasevic is part of a new generation of artists from Montenegro/Serbia, a region undergoing reconstruction after being heavily marked by war and political turmoil. Born in 1974 in Podgorica, Montenegro, she graduated from the School of Fine Arts, Cetinje, Montenegro. Her work been has been shown in several museums: the Kunstalle Fridericianum Kassel, Germany, with In the Gorges of the Balkans, Il Bienal de Jafre, Jafre (Girona), Spain, and the Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, Germany, with Montenegrin Beauty. In addition, there will be a panel discussion on artists emerging from the former Yugoslavia with Jovana Stokic, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and guest speaker Catherine Karl, curator of the Drawing Center, New York, Thursday, January 26 from 6:30 - 8:30 pm. |
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