Predrag Popara igen gyakorlott művész, felfelé ívelő pályán. 1973-ban született a boszniai Trebinjében, belgrádi tanulmányok után jelenleg a szerb főváros és Bukarest közt osztja meg idejét. A festészet valamennyi klasszikus technikájában járatos, melyeket azonban szokatlan anyagok alkalmazásával és alternatív felhasználási módokkal egészít ki és ír néha felül. Ezek az eljárások arról beszélnek, hogy egy folyamatosan kísérletező, fejlődő alkotó áll előttünk, aki saját útját és egyéni kifejezésmódjait keresi. Fogalmi síkon Predrag Poparát az életrajzon túli és kollektív szelf tanulmányozása foglalkoztatja, viszonya a kontextushoz, történelmi-társadalmi-vallási kapcsolódási pontjai és egzisztenciális kérdései. A figuratív ábrázolásmódtól az absztrakthoz való átmenet, mely az elmúlt fél évtizedben valósult meg Popara „beszédmódjában”, jelzi a narratíva direktebb, ikonikusabb megszólalássá-megszólítássá alakulását. Tágabb összefüggésbe helyezve, Predrag Popara munkássága a délkelet-európai kulturális örökséghez és rokon témákhoz való újfajta, az elmúlt ötven év történelmi és kiemelkedő művészettörténeti eseményeit tekintetbe vevő viszonyulásról tanúskodik. Adina Zorzini fordította Domokos Zsófia
Predrag Popara is a highly skillful emerging artist, born in 1973 at Trebinje, Bosnia, educated in Belgrade, Serbia, living and working between Belgrade and Bucharest, Romania. Specialized in painting, Predrag Popara masters equally well all classical techniques of the medium, which he combines and surpasses through the use of unconventional materials and alternative methods of material investigation; thus, Predrag Popara’s technical approach reveals an artist permanently involved in a continuous process of experiment and evolution, in search of a unique path and an individual way of expression. On a conceptual level, Predrag Popara is preoccupied with the study of a trans-biographic and collective self in all its relations to the context, from the relation to historical and societal events to religious aspects and existentialist inquiries; during the past half decade, the transition from a figurative manner of representation to an abstract approach transformed Predrag Popara’s discourse from a narrative speech into a more direct and iconic addressed allocation. In perspective, Predrag Popara’s research demonstrates a new attitude towards the South-Eastern European cultural legacy and its connected themes, comprised in the framework of the last 50 years of recent history and art history bench marks. Adina Zorzini
Predrag Popara este un artist ingenios căpătând din ce în ce mai multă atenție. Născut în 1973 la Trebinje, Bosnia, după studii în Belgrad, își împarte în prezent timpul între capitala Serbiei și București. Specializarea sa fiind pictura, Predrag Popara cunoaște și aplică cu siguranță toate tehnicile clasice ale acestei arte, îmbinându-le însă cu folosirea materialelor ieșite din comun și întrecându-le prin metode alternative de prelucrare a acestora. Aceste modalități de abordare scot în evidență experimentarea și evoluarea continuă a artistului care își caută drumul unic și felul individual de exprimare. La nivel conceptual, Predrag Popara se preocupă de studierea selfului transbiografic și colectiv, respectiv de investigarea raporturilor acestuia cu contextul istoric-socialreligios și cu întrebări existențiale. În ultimii cinci ani, tranziția de la reprezentarea figurativă la o abordare abstractă a transformat „discursul” narativ al artistului, rezultând într-o alocuțiune mai directă și iconică. În context larg se poate afirma că activitatea lui Predrag Popara demonstrează o atitudine nouă față de patrimoniul cultural al Europei de Sud-Est și de teme legate, toate acestea cuprinse în cadrul istoriei ultimilor cincizeci de ani și al punctelor de referință din istoria artei. Adina Zorzini tradus de Zsófia Domokos
Fire and Smoke, acrylic and oil on canvas, 150 x 150 cm 2017
The Lost Landscape acrylic and oil on canvas, 90 x 90 cm, 2017
The Burning Island, acrylic and oil on canvas and paper, 40 cm, 2017.
The Core, acrylic and oil on canvas, 220 x 220 cm 2017
The Broken Forms No1, acrylic and oil on paper, 70 x 100 cm 2017
Belgrade City Museum, The Burning Island, October 2017.
The Burning Sensation, acrylic and oil on canvas, 110 x 85 cm 2017
The Broken Forms No2, acrylic and oil on paper, 70 x 100 cm 2017
From An Unknown Perspective, acrylic and oil on canvas, 220 x 220 cm, 2017.
The Burning Sensation, acrylic and oil on canvas, 220 x 220 cm, 2017.
The Burning Forms No1, acrylic and oil on pvc, 100 x 70 cm, 2017.
The Burning Island, acrylic and oil on canvas, 230 x 270 cm 2016.
The Broken Forms No2, acrylic and oil on paper, 70 x 100 cm, 2017.
New Forms, acrylic and oil on canvas, 220 x 220 cm, 2017.
The Structure, acrylic and oil on pvc 100 x 70 cm, 2016.
Belgrade City Museum, The Burning Island, October 2017.
The Floating Forms, acrylic and oil on paper, 100 x 70 cm, 2017.
The Floating Forms II, acrylic and oil on paper, 100 x 70 cm, 2017.
Predrag Popara was born in Trebinje (Bosnia & Herzegovina). He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 1999. After Belgrade Popara studied for a year at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna,where he specialized in the class of Adolf Frohner, working with visiting professors Maria Lassnig and Christian Ludwig Attersee. Predrag Popara’s artworks proceed from an arbitrary movement which contains at once a hint of the artist’s self and a suggestion of matter in a state of swift and incandescent change. The images he creates display varying degrees of fracture and intensity,and eschew the liberating forms of Late Modernism. The vast, intensive canvas that is the habitual realm of his painterly work acts as a paradigm of the notion of post-truth that has struck at both global culture and solitary, individual ways of understanding the anxieties that surround us in the present day. He won the first prize for drawing in 1998 in Belgrade. He is actively involved in solo exhibitions and projects as well as group exhibitions, both in Serbia and in many other countries, including Austria, Germany, Hungary, France, Romania, Italy, Slovenia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina .He has organized a number of international exhibitions, such as “Black / White” (Italian and Serbian artists), “Transformations” (Romanian, Norwegian, Serbian and Italian artists), “The Burning Island” (Romanian, Serbian and Italian artists) as well as many other exhibitions in Serbia and abroad. He is the owner and founder of the art association and gallery Funnel Contemporary Art, based in Bucharest, which brings together international artists from Southeastern Europe. He lives and works in Belgrade and Bucharest. He regularly exhibits his artwork at major international art fairs such as the Vienna Art Fair, the Warsaw International Fair, International Art Fair Budapest and many others. His artworks are featured in many private regional and international collections around the world. www.funnelcontemporary.eu
The Core Expansion, acrylic and oil on canvas, 250 x 200 cm 2017