STARTER 7 – group exhibition of student works at the Šira Gallery
From the preface to the exhibition:
"Every two years, the STARTER exhibition brings award-winning student works to the gallery space – those that were created within the educational process, but already go beyond the framework of the usual exercise. It is a cross-section of the best achievements of students of the Osijek Academy of Arts and Culture, selected by a jury of professors from the Department of Visual and Media Arts. What connects these young authors is openness to different media and courage in shaping their own artistic expression.
In the academic years 2023/2024 and 2024/2025, students Stela Brkanić, Tea Đambo, Martina Jezidžić, Katarina Kovčalija, Stella Perica, Nataša Takač, and Ivona Vojvodić were awarded. Their works have been realized in various media, from drawings, graphics, photography to video installations. Stela Brkanić painted Interior Landscapes, in which we see portraits of female characters. Closed eyes here do not mean the disappearance of the gaze, but its immersion in one's own inner space – intimate landscapes that open up only when the outside world is turned off.
In the series Dialogues , Katarina Kovčalija builds a tension between the fragile surface and monumental formats, because in this disharmony the corporeality of the painting itself is born. Tea Đambo presents the Travelogue of the Body, a series of three paintings that is visually of daily bodily presence in the form of repetitive lines, which are in continuous change – each curve witnesses a moment, forming an abstract map of bodily movement. In her series of prints Metamorphosis, realized using the drypoint technique, Nataša Takač explores the boundaries of material through abstract drawing that creates the illusion of spatial depth and the visual transformation of one substance into another. Stella Perica's spatial installation is called Shinrin-yoku and represents a contemporary homage to the ancient Japanese practice of forest bathing, which promotes conscious and intentional immersion in the natural environment of the forest with the aim of improving physical, emotional and spiritual health. Martina Jezidžić was awarded for several works, and in this iteration of the exhibition, Experiment A and Experiment B were exhibited. These are two parallel projects in which the author explored the impact of sensory and emotional stimuli on the growth and condition of plants, documenting their transformations through photographs. The work of Ivona Vojvodić is a two-channel video installation that aims to stun the viewer with its dynamics of movement, evoking a sense of confusion that we easily surrender to in everyday life.
By moving student works out of the academic environment, first to the Knifer Gallery, and then to the Šira Gallery, this project enables a more direct dialogue with the audience and raises awareness of the importance of the visibility of young authors in the wider community. It is precisely in this encounter, in this exchange between young authors and the audience, that the true value of this exhibition lies – as a relevant point in their future artistic path."