Exhibition of works by Tomislav Ćurković and Nikola Ukić

The exhibition of works by Tomislav Ćurković and Nikola Ukić was open at the art pavilion Juraj Šporer from February 2nd until February 24th of 2008. The cooperation of these two artists resulted in two exhibitions, the first at the City Gallery of Labin in September of 2007, and the second in Opatija in February of 2008.

Tomislav Ćurković is a movement-loving intuitive improviser to the same degree to which Nikola Ukić is consistent in tracking the ideas and deliberated in his acts. Their works are incomparable; their treatment of the visual so different, that one must question why they would collaborate on an exhibition. The links are twofold: a generational affiliation and friendship, coupled with a desire for playfulness, based on mutual trust and appreciation.
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The Opatija episode is a variation of the one in Labin, though somewhat more classical in its visual layout and less invasive when it comes to exhibition space. Ukić’s series of 8 monochromatic polyurethanes is evenly spaced out and inevitably evokes Minimalism. Minimalist tendencies are also evidenced in his love for industrial materials and geometric forms, repetition of homogenous units and activation of the surrounding or contained space. More specifically, the artist uses industrial materials or an imitation thereof to actualize one of the principles of Minimalism – the erasing of any signs of authorship and the annulment of the authors signature as an important aesthetic component of traditional art. An important part of his study is centered on the application of pigment, which also has its physicality. By mixing polyurethane with pigment, the sculpture becomes heavier and denser and the curing process is different. Ukić experiments like a true modernist and approaches the medium meticulously – he observes and measures the resistance of the material, adhering to the viewpoint that even matter breathes and changes its shape.
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The four reliefs Untitled were created by Tomislav specifically for the art pavilion Juraj Šporer. On a wooden base, he created a collage using bits of cardboard, paper, torn painting and drawing fragments with occasional graffiti stains and unfastened edges. These reliefs look like big segments of maps that do not contain any familiar or whole meaning. (…) Every work appears to be unknown, a map of accumulated memories from another meridian. One cannot delve into the material medium, familiar shape or anything that would keep the mind occupied. On the contrary, everything material seems to negate itself immediately and the viewer is left with an emotional image that he cannot rearrange into a rebus, so he keeps fiddling with his impressions and rearranges them into worlds of his own.
(Sabina Salamon, from the exhibition catalogue)

At the Juraj Šporer gallery in Opatija, Nikola Ukić reprised his Labin exhibition, playfully rearranging the placement and enlarging it with new objects. The monoliths from Labin betray changes made under the influence of time and the microclimate on the material. Consequently, a new dimension appears through the process of the mutation of the material and form. Ćurković has created objects – collages which he places on the wall. He uses a characteristic methodology – using expendable and non-artistic elements, fragments discarded in their own surroundings. They become the bearers of a new meaning by being placed into a new context in their original, as well as altered state. The flatness of the base is made dynamic with relief edges containing narrow bands of glass. Reality is fragmented in them, a mirror image is created, and reflections of light and objects, resulting in unexpected spatial relations. The opposite principle is applied as well, a perforation of the surface which reveals a new layer of the object – painting.
(Nataša Ivančević, from the exhibition catalogue)