Aleksandar Popovic

Aleksandar Popovic is a painter who employs different methods of drawing and paint application to render arresting images that are grouped in a few separate bodies of work. During various periods he has pursued an interest in the figure and explored how it interacts with the space around it. This is evident in his early work, during his years spent in the Former Yugoslavia. After being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and moving to New York, his paintings focused on the observational nature of the figure. In his recent work, Popovic has developed series of Sinking Islands—paintings where the absence of figure does not erase consequences of human impact on its surroundings. These images address the general recognition that some irrevocable events in the future may change the face of the planet. Islands as remnants of the land and islands in the process of dissolution serve as a metaphor for what will be left. Suspended Land is a glimpse into the future where land formations are being extracted or capped in protective bubbles. The narrative is abandoned in favor of contemplation, leading to conclusions about the ways in which we populate physical and geographical spaces. In Glaciers, satellite images are juxtaposed with on-ground view of erosions. Hardly visible, human dwellings are surrounded and threatened by disquieting force of steady glacier movement. 

Popovic has exhibited in numerous one person and group shows including Kips Gallery, New Renaissance Gallery and Synchronicity Space in New York City, Alexandria Museum of Art, Louisiana, Stephaneum Institute in Serbia, Limlip Museum, Gongju Korea and St.Martin’s School of Art in London.  He received Arthur Ross Award for mural painting in 2003, a Charles G. Shaw Memorial Award for Painting in1991, a J. William Fulbright Award in 1988, a British Council Award in 1982 and a Petar Lubarda Award for Painting in 1981.

Courtesy of the Artist