The Mastery of the Line

The exhibition of the Drawing Prize Laureates of the Vladimir Veličković Fund

6 October – 6 December

Authors: Miroslav Karić, Danica Đorđević Janković and Mirko Kokir
Curator: Žaklina Marković

The Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts presents an exhibition dedicated to the recipients of the drawing prize presented by the Vladimir Veličković Fund. The exhibition is being organised to mark the 15th anniversary of this recognition and the 18th anniversary since its establishment. The event will bring together works by 40 laureates of various generations, styles and artistic approaches, thus giving a cohesive insight into heterogenous contemporary drawing practices in Serbia over the last two decades.

The Prize was established in 2008 at the initiative of Academician Vladimir Veličković, who dedicated his national retirement funds  to supporting young artists working on drawings. Developed in cooperation with art historian Borka Božović and the Haos Gallery, the competition has grown into one of the most important and most consistent forms of support for upcoming generations on the art scene in Serbia. Since 2021, it has been under the auspice of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The exhibition at the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts considers the works of the laureates beyond the strict chronology of the Prize, bringing them together according to thematic and conceptual categories that reveal the diversity of approaches to drawing as a medium. It is framed by the concept of liminality, through which drawing is understood as a medium situated on the threshold between trace and complete work, between sketch and autonomous artistic form. The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue featuring texts by Vuk Veličković, Miroslav Karić, Mirko Kokir, and Danica Đorđević Janković which examine the history of the Prize and the body of works of its laureates from different perspectives. Thus, the catalogue represents a testament to the continuity and vitality of the Vladimir Veličković Fund Drawing Prize, and to the enduring relevance of drawing as a distinctive and ever-evolving medium within Serbia’s contemporary art scene.

Among the artists represented at the exhibition are Maja Obradović, Marko Marković, Nemanja Mate Đorđević, Aleksandar Bunčić, Ana Knežević, Jelena Šalinić Terzić, Damjan Kovačević, Simonida Radonjić, Vuk Vučković, Nemanja Nikolić, Tijana Kojić, Aleksandar Jestrović, Vuk Ćuk, Vladimir Lalić, Natasa Kokić, Predrag Damjanović, Nina Ivanović, Hana Rajković, Vladimir Sekulić, Andrea Dramićanin, Tamara Žderić, Jovanka Stanojević, Vladimir Miladinović, Ivana Živić, Petar Mirković, Ivan Šuletić, Marko Kusmuk, Milan Antic, Marina Marković, Kristina Pirković, Milica Lazarević, Nebojša Yamasaki Vukelic, Petar Sibinović, Predrag Đukić, Aleksandar Bajunović, Ivana Aranđelović, Đerđi Ačajić Ratković, Danica Tešić, Andrej Konopek and Veljko Vučković.