8th Exhibition of graphics by Jasmina Nedanovski: She loves pink

Jasmina Nedanovski, She loves pink

Graphic artist and pedagogue Jasmina Nedanovski (1981) presents a selection of her graphics made in the letterpress technique at the She loves pink exhibition. These are woodcuts, linocuts and mixed media. She created works between 2008 and 2023.

Her artistic language changed during her studies and creation, and thus her earlier works are characterized by a more abstract style, which is the product of researching technique, learning about the effects of transparency and overlapping. During her master’s studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, more and more realistic style entered her works, to which she remains loyal to this day. She often expresses herself through an artist’s book and tries out different ways of communicating. For the exhibition project We are watching…, she produced printed deckchairs – objects in the room and interfaces in the form of QR codes, with the help of which the visitor could explore and extract new information. Throughout, her central medium of communication remains graphics. It adds some color to the classic black and white graphics, including red, green, brown, gray, ocher and blue. By introducing color, she additionally emphasizes the architectural form and construction of her works. In this way, she looks for variations of the motif and studies the different relationships created by color accents. An example of this is, for example, the works from the series We are watchinh…, Stay home, At grandma’s and She loves pink.

All of her works have in common that she investigates man, his traces of existence and work, and the objects that surround him and appeal to him. In her works, we recognize everyday objects that she researches in detail, carves into ballast and gives them the role of a central motif, such as, for example, a cup of coffee, a watermelon, a backpack, saffron, bonsai. These small objects combined into still lifes can be read as personifications. Such, for example, is the At grandma’s series, where a table with sweets, two cups of coffee and two chairs invites you to relax with a loved one and radiates homeliness and acceptance. Her works are permeated by grace, which in the series I love pink, she created with a portrait of her daughter, surrounded by her beloved ponies, the color pink, and on the window sill appears the motif of a flower watering can, which the artist often depicted in her earlier works. The She loves pink series is also interesting from the point of view of how the author changes the perception of space by changing the color layers and how the image moves from the two-dimensionality of the format. In the series Stay at home and in one of the last works Bonsai, the author’s persistent search for new design possibilities is expressed. The central motif of the backpack or bonsai is depicted floating in a space that is not bounded by a frame and merges with the background. The author takes inspiration for her works not only from her immediate vicinity, but often also from the history of art, she is especially fond of Pablo Picasso with his series of lithographs with a bull motif and the German expressionists, including Augusta von Zitzewitz, whose works offered her starting points to investigate the fusion of the motif with the base – the carrier.

In the exhibition, we walk from earlier works dominated by relaxation (Okape series, You and me), familiarity (At grandma’s series) and playfulness (Refresh your memory II), past works with a broader social theme (We are watching, Stay at home), where the viewer is encouraged to think about his own attitude towards migrants, to look at the fragile relationships and limitations in society, which are the result of changing society and its values, to return to personally sensitive stories that feed him with optimism and calmness (She loves pink series , Zafran III).

Biography:

Jasmina Nedanovski (1981) graduated from the high school of graphics in Ljubljana and studied at the Faculty of Education in Maribor, where she graduated in graphics in 2006 with prof. Samuel Grajfoner. She continued her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana and in 2010 graduated with honors from prof. Branko Suhy and Jožef Muhovič. She is a member of the Society of Fine Artists of Dolenjska, Bela Krajina and Posavina, participates in group exhibitions and art colonies and runs workshops for children and adults. Her works are in the collections of the Božidar Jakac Gallery in Kostanjevica on Krka, the Dolenjska Museum in Novo mesto, the Bela krajina Museum in Metlika, and in private collections. She regularly presents her works in group exhibitions, the present She loves pink exhibition is her sixth solo exhibition. She teaches at a primary school in Metlika. She lives and creates in Gradac in Bela Krajina.

Klaudija Cigole, art historian