FREE Art Competition – Prize Draw for Painting by Janos Mesaros on 19th February 6.30pm at the Serbian Embassy – Ljupka Jakovljevic is the Winner

"Thank you so much. I am overjoyed. I have never ever won anything in prize draws in my life before. We were screaming with excitement." Ljupka Jakovljevic the winner of the Prize Draw for Painting by Janos Mesaros on 19th February at the Serbian Embassy.

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Read the article about the exhibition featured in the Daily Mirror.

As a result of the success of the inaugural Serbian Week in Great Britain in 2009, 2010 promises to cater to the increasing interest the general public have towards Serbia. Serbian Week in Great Britain will be held from 30th January to 6th February, 2010.

With the assistance of the Embassy of Serbia and the Serbian Week organisers – Serbian Society and Serbian City Club, FineArtGalleryPaintings will exhibit a selection of paintings by prominent Serbian artists in a variety of themes and styles. Work on display will include Dusan Djukaric and Silva Vujovic watercolors, pastel from Janos Mesaros and oil on canvas from Stojan Milanov, Tomislav Suhecki, Zoran Calija, Ema Radovanovic, Branko Dimitrijevic and Dragan Petrovic. As a part of the exhibition we will have on display Serbian Icons hand made by Jasna Nikolic and Marijana Mihajlovic Grubac.

Janos Mesaros, Dance, 25x35cm

Special Serbian Week Offers – all catalogue prices will be discounted by 10%. During the exhibition, visitors have an opportunity to take a part in a FREE art competition and win a painting by famous and world renowned painter Janos Mesaros. The winner will be chosen at the end of the exhibition and informed by email or phone. Application forms for the competition will be available at the exhibition. Entries are  limited to one per person, no purchase necessary. Everyone who takes a part in the prize draw will receive a FREE Complimentary ticket to the Russian, Eastern and Oriental Fine Art Fair in London, June 2010.

Enjoy this art video featuring work by Janos Mesaros

Exhibition Opening Night 5th February 7pm
8-19 February, Monday to Friday, 11am -4pm
13th February Saturday, 11am-4pm
(or per appointment call 01223 969995)
Excludes Monday 15th February – Serbian Statehood Day
Serbian Embassy, 28 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8QB

The exhibition will open at 7pm on 5th February at the Embassy of Serbia, in conjunction with the Ministry of Diaspora visit and will remain on display until 19th February. This excludes Serbian Statehood Day on 15th February when a special function will be held at which prominent officials from many foreign embassies will be invited to attend.

The exhibition will close on 19th of February with extended opening hours until 8pm, following prize draw at 6.30pm.

Many other exciting events will be happening during the week. These include the St Sava Celebration on Saturday: a programme of folk dancing and traditional music, the St Sava Holy Liturgy on Sunday at the Serbian Orthodox Church of St Sava, the opening of the Serbian Library in London on Thursday and a series of lectures and discussion groups on Serbian heritage. Clearly, there is something for everyone interested in Serbian culture.

On our website you can follow the ongoing projects of our talented artists, learn about their exhibitions and read their interviews. In addition, our members have access to free tickets for some of the most prestigious art events in the UK, including the Russian, Eastern & Oriental Art Fair in London. A wide range of membership benefits include FREE and discounted art fair tickets and Private View invitations, FREE subscriptions to top international art magazines, FREE art competitions and many others.

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Fourteen artists have participated in the colony, along with one art historian, twelve of them from various parts of Serbia and three from Velika Hoca. One of the artists who came to Velika Hoca was also the famous naïve painter Mladen Bozanic from Dragacevo, who helped in the The Bells of Metohija auction when it was held in Cacak. He was thrilled by the people of Velika Hoca, and the whole village, it’s old houses and walls reminding him of a museum, he told us while he was finishing a painting of grapes and wine.

Sitting by his side in the courtyard of the Signoirial House we met Ljiljana Vojvodic, who came from Ruma. She is a sculptor and a school teacher. She did two paintings in this colony. They represent the doors and immense walls of Hoca, all of them with passages symbolizing a hope for all. “Small beams on the walls are like wires with little birds sitting on them. They come together. Just like Serbs do, the swallows migrate and come back again,” Ljubica said while painting a heart in mixed technique, dedicated to the people of Velika Hoca. “The artists like to leave a mark, especially when they’re doing something useful, and so they know that they will leave behind something beautiful, something sacred, for the people. The ones who have a hundred thousand dollars can donate funds, and those of us who have less materially, we have this great strength and energy, a love we can share with others.”

In the courtyard of the Signorilial House I also met Milena Vitkovic-Zikic, the art historian. She has been to Velika Hoca several times.

"My goal is to make a complete list of all the artwork in the collection, the results of all the previous colonies, and the collection will be exhibited in Saraj, because Saraj is the right place for the entire collection, and there will be exhibitions in other towns. The artistic culture from the past and the present has to be present its best work to be a representation of Velika Hoca, along with the wine. So far I have the information that in the 46 domestic authors participated in the 2003, 2004 and 2005 art colonies in Hoca, along with 11 foreigners, and here in Saraj there are 160 paintings. It’s an impressive number that shows that this is a serious collection."

Vesna Markovic from Belgrade has been to Velika Hoca several times already and she has been a member of the Bells of Metohija committee for the last three or four years.

“I am here as a member of the Association of Fine Arts but also as a painter,” she said. “Recently we had an art colony in Piran, Slovenia. The paintings were done for the reconstruction of Hoca. Our church in Trieste promised to frame the paintings and there will be an art show held in Trieste. It doesn’t matter how much money is raised, the important thing is to paint. That’s what we can do, we can donate our work and our time. I like Hoca, especially the well-preserved old architecture, it’s like one century in the past, I hope that most of it can be restored.”

Vesna Markovic did two paintings. One of them shows the church of St. Stephen and the other focuses on grape vines.

Jelena Bojanic is a young artist who had lived in Pristina untill 1999. She helped painted a wall of the nursery in Orahovac, and she also did two paintings, one of them in acrylic on canvas. She doesn’t hide her joy for being here and says:

"It feels wonderful to be here. The happiness and the sorrow mixed together."

While the other artists have all found a quiet place in the village to paint in, located in the centre of the village in the main square, I see Zoran Calija, known by his nickname Charlie. Regardless of the heat he is standing at the little stove baking crepes for a bunch of local kids gathered around him.

Even though he’s busy he doesn’t mind talking to us and he tells us that the criteria for the selection of this year’s artists was high because along with the artistic quality, they have to have be humane and conscientious because the most important thing for each artist is to know where he’s going and for what purpose. This art colony is not only located in Velika Hoca but is also dedicated to Velika Hoca, for the restoration of the village, of its churches and monasteries. Each artist made two pieces. One is for the collection of Velika Hoca and the other is for the fond or for the Bells of Metohija auction.

For the next year we have planned an art show that will be opened at the same time in Moscow, London, Paris, Belgrade, and Trieste. Some of the artwork has already been collected. The paintings came from the English, French, but also from the Croats, Slovenians, Macedonians, Bulgarians and Greeks, which by itself is a response to the questions of the consciousness and love of the artists for the medieval art and culture. If we let all this be forgotten, if we renounce everything we have – we are nothing. Regardless of all the difficulties, we only care about love – the love for children and everyone else. I am in love with the children of Velika Hoca, with the churches and monasteries of Orahovac and Metohija, I am in love with all these good people, and the love carries with it a vow and a responsibility, and my vow is the responsibility for all of you, forever. If a man forgets love and the responsibility of the heart, he is nothing.

During their stay in Velika Hoca, the artists had the opportunity to participate in the harvest at the Vineyard of Decani, and they attended the reading of the Canon of prayer to the Holy King at the Decani monastery.

For the day of Venerable Cyriacus the Anchorite-Miholjdan, at the Vinery of Decani, there was an art show, and to everyone’s joy a painting was sold, and to whom else but Zivorad Jovanovic, who, together with the Association of Fine Arts of Serbia helped reconstruct the Zociste monastery.

Regardless of the hard work, the artists have enjoyed themselves in Velika Hoca, and they also had the opportunity to meet and spend an evening with the world renowned writer Peter Handke, to whom they gave one of the new paintings as a token of appreciation for everything he has been doing for the Serbian people.

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1 When did you start to make art?

I started creating as a child, my first phase of creativity was the product of a game and also of communication with my inner fantasy world.

Zoran Calija, The end of the day, Oil on canvas, 2009, 60x100cm

The year I was born, 1963, we had a horrible earthquake in Skopje, Macedonia so for the next 6 years we were living in barracks. There were no toys, my parents were often busy working so I was spending a lot of time playing with pencils and paper, and ever since then I believe that creativity – art has a strong link to childhood, and to create is to play.

At first I was drawing silhouettes of people, animals, I would cut them out and play with them, and later I made them from different materials, I drew comics, cartoons, I did all that as a child. When I was in 5th or 6th grade my cousin gave me my first illustration book by Van Gogh and I was so fascinated, if I had to name an artist who made such an impression on me in that early period that'd be Van Gogh and later also Boticelli, Bosch, Picasso, Dali.

2 How did you evolve into a professional artist?

When I was in elementary school my teachers noticed me, and later my art teacher did too, and so they would give me various tasks, not only in art class, but also the other teachers commissioned me, and since I wasn't a very good student that came in handy for my grades – I painted Einstein and Newton for my physics teacher, Ivo Andric, Selimovic for my Serbian language teacher, some heroes from history for my history teacher.

Unruly as I was, in 7th grade I once skipped school to go to Ada Ciganlija, and I saw kids making sculptures in the sand. It was some sort of competition – everyone was with their teachers, and I thought I could win a candy or chocolate and I signed up. I won the first prize in Belgrade, third prize in Serbia, fifth in the former Yugoslavia, but there was no chocolate, just a certificate. Meanwhile I traded a drawing for a doctor's note because I had skipped school, but I had no idea that a newspaper published a photo from the competition. So I also got detention and a warning before expulsion because I had lied and skipped school, but I also got praised for the prize I won.

Later I went to art high school and then the academy of art.

3 What drove you to make art as a professional vocation?

The answer to this is the answer to the question of what art is. And for me, art is the process of gathering information from the outside world with our senses, the integration with our inner world and the production of the piece.

Zoran Calija, Owl, Oil on canvas, 2009, 50x40cm

It's that feeling of inner joy and that inner feeling that can be materialized through artwork. The feeling of creation is vital. The joy of creating is the reason and the motor of my art.

4 Explain your inspiration?

The inspiration can be a strong emotional feeling, a strong visual sensation, a fantasy, playing, experimenting, and sometimes the combination of all these things. The inspiration is, for me, the infusion of creating, sometimes it comes from the outside world and sometimes from the inside, from the very being. Inspiration cannot be controlled easily, it's like love, sometimes you wait for it for years, you call for it, and nothing comes, and then all of a sudden it shows up, it overwhelms you and becomes your master.

5 How does your inspiration transform itself into ideas?

There is no recipe for that, if there was one then there wouldn't be creation and pleasure, it would be pure manual production labour. Sometimes the idea just shows up, then the inspiration comes along with it. Sometimes the inspiration comes first and then, guided by it, I search and experiment like an alchemist. And sometimes I just find myself in front of an enormous blank canvas and I attack it, looking for the inspiration and the idea.

6 From ideas to production of art – how? And why?

A painting is a process, there is no recipe, the approach to every painting is different, each painting is a unique being, just like each man is. Every painting, every artwork, has its character, just like every creature on this Earth has its own character. And to ask why, is like asking why to love.

7 Could your ideas be portrayed in any other medium? If so which?

Of course they can, but basically the most important thing is that the artist is true to his work. He has to have his inner story and his inner sensation and to be true to his art, and the medium through which he will produce it can be a sculpture, a poem, words, theatrical play, and the success of the productions depends on his skill and knowledge of the medium.

8 Which artists would you most like to blatantly rip off?

I enjoy the work of others, but I don't feel the need to copy anyone.

9 Why is your art made?

Because it brings me joy when I succeed in materializing the synthesis of the information gathered within the inner world and my own sensibility. I see it as a mirror to my own soul.

10 What does being an artist mean to you?

Freedom and responsibility. Freedom, to be able to express all of my feelings and thoughts, and responsibility towards the audience regarding the ways in which I do it.

11 Are you happy with your reasons for making art? i.e Are there any trade offs that make life hard?

I am happy because I'm always in touch with myself, and because of the freedom and responsibility I mentioned. The difficulties come in the sense that there is no inner, material or physical peace. Artists are like nomads, they're always on the move and are always in the centre of the middle of something.

12 When does your art become successful?

Only when I feel the need to sign a painting, when I have nothing left to say. A painting is successful when the author is happy with it and when he feels that he said everything he wanted with it.

13 What is art?

The artist gathers information with his senses, he mixes them inside himself with the emotion and with his reason like an alchemist, and then he uses all that to produce a work of art.

14 How do you start the process of making artwork?

Zoran Calija, Night, Oil on canvas, 2009, 60x50cm

There are three phases through which I experience my work. In the beginning the canvas is empty, there is nothing, there is only the artist and a blank canvas in front of him. And in that first phase the artist attacks the canvas, he courts it, he seduces it, he brings gifts to it. In the second phase, everything that the artist put on the canvas starts responding to the courtship, to all the energy the artist has invested. The painting starts to communicate with him, and the

painting and the artist are in a state of interaction, the painting now asks questions and gives answers, the artist asks questions and the painting gives answers. The next phase is like a relationship between a man and a woman, when the woman becomes vain and spoiled and just wants things for herself and the artist has no say in it anymore, the painting says "do this to me, add that, put some light here," until it's complete and the painting stops asking for things, and it's then that the artist puts his signature on it.

15 Who prices your work? And how is the price decided upon?

The prices are determined by my manager.

16 What is your next; move,project,show etc?

Some organisational work – the humanitarian auction Bells of Metohija, for the restoration of the medieval monuments that were destroyed, an art workshop in Slovenia, an art workshop in Hoca, Metohija, the biennale of Southeast European Youth. I'm also going to do two set designs for theatre, and the preparation is underway of my painting and sculpture exhibitions in Belgrade and Paris in 2010.

17 What are the pros and cons of the art market?

The pros are that the painting has become a product with its market value, and the cons are that the art scene has become overwhelmed by the extended media (performance, installation) that are a result of the new age industrial revolution. However, the growth of technology and different media has not succeeded in suppressing the art scene. The whole wave of electronisation of the new age has passed through Europe and the world, and the paintings are still there with all their elements that made painting such a specific and original art form.

18 Which pieces would you like to be remembered for?

For my humane acts and humanity.

19 Any routine in making your artwork? If so what?

There is always a beginning with an uncertain continuation and end.

20 What has been the biggest break in your career?

The work itself and the continuity have given results, there were no about-faces, it all took an ascending path.

21 Who has been the biggest influence on you?

In my first year of high school I felt for the first time what it feels like to be in front of a painting stand and a model, once again thanks to skipping school. I skipped class, it was winter, so I took the bus because it was warm inside. From the bus, in the Sumice neighbourhood of Belgrade, I saw a sign that said "atelier," I got off the bus and peeked inside, where I saw an old man who invited me in. For a moment I was embarrassed, like a peeping tom caught in the act, but the old man smiled gently and asked me if I liked painting. I said I did but I didn't have any money, he replied I didn't need money and gave me a coal stick and told me to paint a plaster leg. So I began my painting under supervision, in an atelier. There was no happier kid than me at that time.

Zoran Calija, Morning, Oil on canvas, 2009, 65x35cm

I kept in touch for three months with professor Nikolic who was a sculptor, later his atelier was closed due to his illness, I found out he had an eye operation, I found him and went to visit. I found him in his garden, I saw him from the back and he knew it was me and said "Zoran, come in and sit". I sat and watched as he was sculpting with his eyes blindfolded and it's the most intense image I ever saw in my life – how strong the inspiration that life carries is and how strong the hunger for art is as well. All the previous childhood images have meant something to me but this one decided my path. I remember that meeting when he was sculpting blindfolded, he spoke to me about happiness and he asked me what happiness is, I was giving examples and then he told me that happiness is when the heart and soul choose their way and you start following it. The closer you are to the goal your heart sets, the bigger the joy of the heart becomes.

22 How many artworks have you given away and to whom?

I have given many of my works away, dozens if not hundreds, as gifts to homes for children who have no parents, for hospitals in Serbia, monasteries in Kosovo and churches.

This interview is done for FAD Art Fast News, London based art website covering contemporary art news, street art, video, design, etc.

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