Reviews

Expressing himself in a range of glittering colours that reflect joy springing from the harmonic relationship with his surroundings, the author speaks the visual language of indisputable communicativeness in his landscapes.

Beatrice Feöcze, art critic (review of the 1985 exhibition at “Galerija 44”)

Davor’s vigorous brush stroke brings to mind not only Van Gogh’s vehemence and Konjović’s passion, but also shows the ability of creative redefinition of models and, as a consequence, the development of a flowing and recognizable style…

When magnetic fields get disturbed (which was often the case in the last avant-garde decades), it is much safer to follow one’s own intuition than the stale style of academic schooling. In cases such as Davor’s, innate talent gains the advantage over the learned and the routine. Understandably, this route is hopeless unless its “captain” learns to navigate. And Davor Vuković managed the art of navigation to perfection.

Josip Depolo, art critic (introduction to the 1988 exhibition at Europe House Zagreb)

Davor Vuković spontaneously followed his own talent and almost instinctively reached expressionist stylisation (deformed shapes with strong colouristic accent). His guides were artists either of the past or of the present, most notably Milan Konjović with his dynamic morphology and a vital syncretising tradition that connects the past with the present. Recognised and supported by the critic Josip Depolo, Vuković indeed started his career by following his predecessors and models, constantly measuring his affinities and chances. In the series of larger paintings, the individual gesture is finally set free and the signs are becoming fully autonomous. I believe that the still young painter will have the strength and determination to define more precisely the things he had hinted at in his earlier works.

Tonko Maroević, art critic (introduction to the 1989 exhibition at Salon of Miroslav Kraljević gallery)

Postimpressionist painting as well as Vuković’s is characterised by the primeval. As a man born in a rocky landscape and raised in a different one, he keeps returning to his roots. In his imagination he enters a world decipherable only by a well-educated person. Vuković will surely be talked about in wider circles and his significance will undoubtedly be greater than we can now imagine.

Josip Dujmović, art critic (introduction to the 1993 exhibition at “Galerija Dar” in Zaprešić)

Art inspired by forms and colours in intertwining relations of natural phenomena is realized in Davor Vuković’s paintings with exciting and easily recognizable typical relations of colours and forms, brush strokes and vibrant surfaces that express their own painterly existence which, I would say, reflects the reality itself.

Ferdinand Meder, Director of Croatian Restoration Institute (introduction to the 1996 exhibition at “Klovićevi dvori” gallery in Zagreb)

A self-educated painter, Davor Vuković Dado has definitely been recognized by experts and audience after the opening of his exhibition “Croatian national parks” at Fortezza Gallery on Jesuit Square in Zagreb. Vuković possesses original artistic inspiration and with his talent and dedication he reached the technique and expression of academism, at the same time keeping the wild spontaneity of primal artistic inspiration, which was confirmed by the first reaction of critics and fascinated audience at the opening.

Miljenko Majnarić, journalist (review of the 1996 exhibition at “Klovićevi dvori” gallery in Zagreb)

Vuković’s landscape was composed on the verge of different reflections of creativity. Restrictions of the descriptive, the tactility of form, the independence of artistic shapes, the atmosphere that originates from the moods inspired by dynamic qualities of colour-they all create the landscape which makes Vuković one of the most prominent authors in the contemporary Croatian landscape painting.

Stanko Špoljarić, art critic (introduction to the 1998 exhibition at Cultural Centre in Čakovec)

Vuković brilliantly manages to captivate the essence of beauty in his Impressionist compositions with lively colours…. His works can be compared to French Impressionists and Postimpressionists of the last century. Vuković, like Monet or Seurat uses colour to interpret the quality of light and its connection to shade within his vision…

The exhibited pastels and drawings attracted a mass attention. Vuković’s work was positively assessed by prominent London curators, artists and the media. The exhibition contributed to the promotion of Croatian cultural and natural heritage.

Flora Turner, cultural attaché at Croatian Embassy in London (introduction to the 1999 exhibition at Croatian Embassy in London)

The painting of artist and poet Davor Vuković is imbued with the same joy present in his poetry that celebrates life and artistic creation…Vuković’s series of paintings named “The transformation of landscape” bring another joyful vision, the experience of landscape as a spectacular natural phenomenon where there is no room for dark subjects or gloomy visions.

Marina Tenžera, journalist (review of the 2003 exhibition at “Ulrich” gallery in Zagreb)

Here you can see paintings exclusively orientated towards the landscape which is painted in an extremely expressionist manner with lavish colours. At the beginning of his artistic career Vuković was on the trail of the well-known Vincent van Gogh, while later on he became independent in his search of self-expression that was on the verge of tachism, that is, a kind of action painting. It is a landscape thet can only be discerned under the spilt and splashed dripping colour.

Dubravka Gruber, art critic (introduction to the 2004 exhibition at “Dante” gallery in Zaprešić)

Davor Vuković’s painting is an example of never-dying tradition which proves that a painter can remain loyal to his principles even if he does not follow trends of modernity set from the outside, not the inside…

But what marked the painting of painters such as Becić, Babić, Varlaj, Gliha, Janda, Šimunović, Škrnjug, or Brešić if not landscape? The entire history of Croatian visual arts is unthinkable without landscape painting…

Landscape has always been present in Vuković’s work as the main component, but in a way which enabled Vuković to transform his views of nature. His landscapes are at the same time outer and inner and they speak of Vuković as an artist who responds to his surroundings. However, he does not react through objective statement, but through lively emotional view and visual reality intertwined with its own transformation into tension, and through the need for visual expression. Still holding to tradition, Vuković’s expressive handwriting, although simplified, reveals the charms of landscape by creating a realistic colour relation to nature.

Branimir Pešut, Director of Slavonski Brod Art Gallery (introduction to the 2006 exhibition at the Museum of the city of Split)

Taking landscape as a trigger for expressing his emotional state of mind the author creates his paintings as personal visions and constructions, without narration and description. Using colour, his basic means of expression, he employs its all qualities to create a dramatic accent, intensifying the effect further by euphoric brush strokes. Intense contrasts of warm and cold colours emphasise the drama to make the sound. The result of the vigorous brush stroke is relief effect of the surface. When colour is applied to the canvas in wide strokes, a particular tension is created, and eventually the painting becomes blurred and “sleepy”. Observing the landscape we plunge into the zone of timelessness, the never-ending and the unknown, yet expected.

Ankica Babin, Director of the Museum of Kaštela (introduction to the 2007 exhibition at the Museum of Kaštela, Kaštel Lukšić)

All the paintings selected for this show witness the creative path that was passed as well as the noticeable morphological changes based on systematic studio experiments. Tonko Maroević recognized Vuković’s «liberation of individual gesture and fuller autonomy of signs» in one of the earliest painter’s exhibition, the 1989 Miroslav Kraljević Galley show. He explained this as «a need to breathe and write simultaneously». On that occasion Maroević wrote the often-quoted line about Vuković’s instinctive finding of expressionist stylization close to Milan Konjović’s work. This line would soon become a leit motif of later interpretations of Vuković’s work.

I tend to think that this exhibition could be the «turning point» (another term from Maroević’s foreword) after which the previously mentioned stylistic features would definitely be classified as traits of Vuković’s painterly past, but not the present. I would like to stress that the composition and the structure of the selected paintings spring mainly from Vuković’s individual procedure, with only a few reminiscences of his role models’ creative characteristics. While composing a picture Vuković shares more similarity with Dulčić and Dogan than with Konjović, although he reached similar solutions in a completely different artistic development. Instead of the «need to breathe and write simultaneously» we are now facing the need, again induced from the author’s subconsciousness, of gradual picture building with no causal reference to the reality itself. Intuitive expressiveness was replaced by equally original method of balancing inner instincts and modest expression of masterly craft.

Darko Glavan (from the foreword to the exhibition catalogue, Matica hrvatska Gallery, 2008)

In a global defeat of art, universally deduced to cheap puns, like British art commandos who exhibit nylon stockings and dirty laundry earning millions thanks to unscrupulous curators, it is a miracle to experience powerful new painting which celebrates life. This is the case with the most paintings by Davor Vuković exhibited at Matica hrvatska Gallery. The show appeared as a thunder on a weak Croatian art scene which is crowded with lame imitators who, as their international peers also do, only recycle and copy past as well as (post) conceptual puns, using favorite postmodern invention: the quote. We can cynically comment that after the notorious formula equating art with life, everyone is allowed to call himself or herself an artist.

Vuković’s cycle flashed with amazing power and breathtaking paintings. Although created by using the well-known Action Painting technique of dripping, the paintings called Transformations are fascinating studies of the unknown phenomena can be traced by microscope or by watching fantastic changes of night sky through the telescope. The Universe is for Vuković the pure joy and light of almost Biblical connotations. Each painting is a poetic explosion where particles spread radially as cosmos. With the strength of an athlete and a heart of poet Vuković created his impressions without referring to others.

And why should he refer to anybody else? There is enough poor art and especially too many second-rate followers of Murtić convinced of their genius. Therefore, this exhibition is a pure miracle performed by this self-effacing poet and artist who suddenly emerged as the epicenter of top Croatian painting. And this is something very special!

Marina Tenžera (art critic, Vjesnik daily paper, May 5th 2008)

After Pollock there was nothing left to be said, I thought. But, I was wrong. Congratulations to the artist.

Davor Velnić (author, guestbook at Matica hrvatska Gallery, 2008)

Davor Vuković’s painting, exhibited at Matica hrvatska Gallery is a really refreshing discovery in recent Croatian art. Not conforming to current artistic trends, Vuković promotes the joy of painting and presents his inner dramatic world in paintings full of specific color whirls and carefully designed compositions. He reasserts the classical essence of painting as an aesthetic phenomenon and as an art as opposed to witty painterly puns that are flooding Croatian and international art scene of today.

Ernest Fišer, MA (author, literary and art critic, guestbook at Matica hrvatska Gallery, 2008)

Vuković’s most recent work represents a step forward from his paintings exhibited at Matica hrvatska Gallery in 2008, a step forward towards pure abstraction and composition simplification. A kind of form denial present in most of his paintings between 2004 and 2007 can be noticed in shrouding landscapes in a thick web of white threads and deconstructing the matter from the first layer to the surface. This is now being replaced clearly structured imaginary landscapes and unusual linear forms rise from the bottom of horizontally set paintings. The leit motif is still spattered paint pushed towards the edges of the canvas. In some paintings it is completely non-descriptive and it dominates the white ground with no perspective or plans. These compositions of threads are set apart from Vuković’s contemporaneous dynamic landscapes made by light and quick brushstrokes on pure white canvas.

With his recent works Vuković reached a point when no comparison with any authority is necessary. He reached the point when his merit can no more be evaluated by citing quotes. Self-assured and dynamic, recognizable but not monotonously same, playful in color and freed from entropy, he expresses a more casual and open gesture and once again reassures his position among the established Croatian painters.

Mirjana Repanić Braun, PhD (from the foreword to the exhibition catalogue at Vladimir Filakovac Gallery, Zagreb, 2008.)

The art world is an extremely tough market to break into, but it also the place where dreams are created. Davor Vukovic was the featured artist of May’s Collide exhibition. After discovering Vukovic’s work via work of mouth, I decided to represent the artist and his work here in New York. I was immediately drawn to his paintings upon seeing them. There’s a significant personal presence in his work, but then there’s the Cezanne-like divinity of understanding nature that bring Vukovic’s paintings to the forefront of contemporary art, just as Cezanne did over 100 years ago.

The artist faced quite a challenge for his first show in NYC, how to get exposure in an already saturated international art market. Vukovic rose to the challenge and exceeded all expectations. It take more than just great artwork to make it in this world, especially in NYC where there are hundreds of galleries and thousands of working artists. While exhibiting at Ico Gallery Vukovic received tons of international reviews and acclaim.

Robert Berry, curator ( article at Ico Gallery blog titled „Pugilist Of The Month: Davor Vukovic, 2009)

Although initially he expressed his creative ambition in the written form, since the beginning of the 80s Davor Vuković systematically exhibited his paintings, and in mid-nineties he definitely chose the freelance artist status by becoming a full member of the Croatian Association of Visual Artists (HDLU). His early works show the influence of Vincent Van Gogh and Milan Konjović.

His fundamental creative procedure could be termed “expressionist stylization (deformation of shapes with strong colouristicaccents)” (Tonko Maroević). During the second half of the 90s Vuković turned to painting of Croatian national parks. In these paintings, in the opinion of the renowned Croatian art historian Mirjana Repanić-Braun, apart from disciplining the composition he achieved “a parallel with characteristics of the Chinese Shan Shui landscapes, founded on philosophical principles of Taoism”.

During further explorations in his atelier, since the beginning of the third millennium presented in several exhibitions connected by the title Transformation of Landscapes, Vuković managed to apply such constructive procedures to several series of impressive depictions of personal reflections and experiences. Works created during this decade could be described as individual variants of inner spiritual landscapes with only faintly expressed or even entirely suspended link with physical reality, so that they can be classified as abstract art. In the mentioned period Vuković regularly and successfully exhibited his works in Croatia and abroad (New York). In many reviews in printed and electronic media his work is assessed as belonging to the “epicentre” and holding “one of the leading positions in Croatian painting” (Vjesnik’s art critic Marina Tenžera).

Darko Glavan ( Conclusion in monograph about Davor Vuković, 2010)

Davor Vuković’s style development has had its specific logic, it evolved from descriptive and narrative (but always expressive) into abstract and structural, and then inside that abstraction it showed an interesting path from reality construction, through its formative deconstruction to a new reality. In the last instance, up to a certain point of simulacrum, with perception adjusted to a new level of cognition.

Firm forms have from their initial phase in the next – deconstruction phase (cycle ‘Transformation’),under the influence of light and energy of gesture disintegrated and spread explosively over the canvas, and then in the most recent cycle ‘Archipelago’ all those scattered particles came together through osmosis, transgressing into the creation of new shapes and giving life to finally concise and synthesised colour masses of an imaginary landscape. Thus creating archipelagos in a perceptible and constructed, but realistically nonexistent world. The archipelagos seem to be static but they are actually floating and moving, vibrating and pulsating in a fluid, thick magma of purple, turquoise, blue and green, the colours of his a personal ‘sea’. Space and time overlap here, and the view is constantly being adjusted, so sometimes they seem remote and sometimes very close, leaving an impression of everlasting and eternal, as well as stretched out, personal and emotive. With Vuković it is mostly the impression of the intimate, because the paintings show him on the inside – thoughts, feelings and memories, as well as his philosophy of the relationship with nature and life in general. Above all, however, the paintings represent his hedonistic élan, which stemmed from using clean, pasty and exuberant colours.

Višnja Slavica Gabout(from the foreword to the exhibition catalogue at Porezna uprava Gallery , Zagreb, 2011)

In Wind, we notice a more abrupt division in the lanscape. There is an assertive, transcendental power, an ethereal field that is conjured up by this piece. This comes throught via the colors. Therein, a consoling blue haze brings peace to the canvas. The lower part of the canvas is akin to a reflection of evening light on a pond. Deep blues and bright oranges are remarkably present. Underneath the light blue brush strokes, purple and olive green dominate. But, most striking about this work, is that the whole piece seems like it is soaring. Composed of gestural hatch marks which resemble birds, it creates an effervescnet, rich atmosphere that conjures up the majesty of flight.

Most unique is his work, Gentle Archipelago. It is spontaneous, more freely painted and the color palette, mature. This works captures the sensation of early morning dew or the first frost. It’s cooler palette mixed with darker forms creates incredibly marked divisions.

But it is his work entitled Africa, which is full of wonderful experimentation and endless imagination. Albert Einestein once wrote that “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” This work enciricles the viewer in a refulgent, gleaming sensatoin that highlights the immense creative capcaity withon Vukovic. This work is all about play. It is obvious that this landscape wasn’t based on the artist’s surroundings, at least not entirely. There are no signs of islands or the Croatian coastline. The artist is less familiar with this environment. There are fewer details. The heavy layer of white paint has different nuances. The mélange is still white, but less banal. It feels like part of the earth is falling, collaspsing onto the sedmiment below. This powerful tension is present in all of Vukovic’s paintings.

Vukovic’s work is viscreal, challenging and full of endless wonder. The tangled webbed lines and spatters ruthlessly slice through thick ones in a show of bravado and excitement. His work captures the human drama with his masterful use of light and dark, chaos and anxiety. And his story continues to inspire.

Abraham Lubelski, owner of Broadway Gallery and Ny Arts Magazine (article titled „Davor Vukovic’s Captivating Color“ from Ny Arts Magazine, vol. 19, Summer, and International Fairs Newspaper, 2012)

Davor Vukovic, a self-educated painter and poet, is one of the most prominent artists in contemporary Croatian modern abstract landscape painting. Vukovic possesses originality mixed with an innate talent for spontaneous expression. Although his poems are more subtle and introspective, his paintings are passionate and exciting—he engages himself both physically and emotionally. Expressing himself in a range of colors that reflect both his inner self and his outer interactions with nature, Vukovic infuses modernity and impressionism into energetic paintings that soothe the mind. His work, through its evocative use of color, movement, texture, and shape, display a state of mind rather than a tangible landscape.This October, Vukovic will be highlighted in a major solo exhibition at Broadway Gallery, NYC.

Vukovic’s paintings, reminiscent of Van Gogh or Whistler, are composed of different reflections and interactions with his creativity and his sea, something he feels is an expansion of his soul. He takes landscapes as an inspiration for expressing his emotional state of mind, creating personal visions without a need for narration or description. Vukovic’s portrayal of the vibrations of the sun, moon, and stars on an inexhaustible sea is felt in Dense Transparency. In Dragon’s Tail, Floating Indigo, and Autumn, Vukovic depicts the archipelago from his perspective. He always uses the contrast of dark and bright bold colors along with pastels to create a balance of the darkness and silence that exists on the islands of the Croatian Adriatic Sea, as well as the vibrant, vital energy that lives within modern cities. In correspondence to this contrast, he also writes a collection of poetry titled, “I Lean On The Silence,” to express the vital, vibrant, and lively energy by which he is surrounded.

His poetry, on the other hand, illuminates a “ray of light” Vukovic believes is common to everything. In his poems he writes about merging with God, a moment that often emanate his art and his poems. Vukovic’s religion strongly influences his way of life, mindset and artwork—the holy component of his pieces that also serve as their cornerstone. His poetry is self-healing but his paintings are a way of self-expression.

Abraham Lubelski, owner of Broadway Gallery and Ny Arts Magazine (article titled „Davor Vukovic’s Grand Entrance“ from Ny Arts Magazine, vol. 19 , fall, and International Fairs Newspaper, Issue 17, 2012)

Davor Vukovic’s paintings, like his personalityare provocative, full of vigor anda zest for life. Most noticeable is his use of vibrant colors, freely dashed about thecanvas. Yet, his paintings are far less abstractupon analyzation. They are at first, intense and uninhibited, full of playfulinnocence. Yet, they are also hallucinatoryand psychedelic. Behind swathsof paint resembling a rich atmosphere,there is a sense of mystery. He is a masterof formal innovation and his work sets off sparks like fireworks.Davor Vukovic’s work i incrediblyconnected to his sense of environmentand home, close to the sea. He describeshis paintings as a recurrent image of islandsand coasts. In a way, this descriptionof his surroundings goes deeper than representation.They are not objective, butemotional. They are reflections, memoriesand dreams combined with his reality.Like in his poems, he is seeking for theessence of life. Over time, one notices thathis paintings are existential: he finds theessence in life itself. And his varied experiencesbecome elaborate motifs. Stylistically, Vukovic finds his way between abstraction and action painting.His use of color is parallel to the way tha tFrench impressionists such as Monet tried to evidence the shades, the hues in the airand water. And in some of his paintings he even dabbles in a neo-cubism.

As far as influences are concerned,one can also notice similarities with the work of the Serbian painter and Vukovic’s friend, Milan Konjovic. And once the artist de Kooning was quoted as saying that “I don’t paint to live, I live to paint.” It is a sentiment that seems aptly suited to Vukovic’s personality. But influences aside, Vukovic has remained loyal to original approach, a self-educated technique. And few artists compare to his signature style.He is an extraordinary modern artist.

Abraham Lubelski (from the foreword to the exhibition catalogue at Broadway Gallery , New York, 2012)

In his most recent cycle of self-confident dynamic paintings named Archipelago, presented to American audience in a one-man show at Broadway Gallery in New York (October-November 2012, prologue by Abraham Lubelski) the artist’s ease of creating and hedonism of color, as well as experiment with space and texture became more evident than in his earlier work. Astonishing energy emancipated in creative dialogues with the canvas reaches the viewers in a way that is more powerful and direct than ever before. Despite the restless compositions and complex contrasts of the filigreed and the compendious in picture structure, we do not keep searching for details – we accept them unquestioningly, startled by the impact of the whole.

In the process of painting Vuković repeatedly superposes the layers. The procedure was first documented in an earlier cycle called The Transformation of Landscape, where the most of imaginary landscapes appeared veiled by cotton like threads. In certain paintings of the Archipelago cycle this procedure resulted in the ultimate duel of two almost equally important layers: the chaotic and dynamic lower layer spread over the entire surface of the canvas and the “soothing“ upper layer of untainted colors applied in broad brushstrokes to determine the whole.

Vuković’s depictions of archipelagoes are not mimetic varieties of the seen and the remembered, nor are they abstract associations of maritime landscapes. They are images of the artist’s mind maps, his inner self visualized in the ambivalence of the static and the changeable, the traditional and the innovative, the playful and the cataclysmic. Seen from most viewpoints – classic perspective from the land, in vertical perspective and in bird’s eye view, or even in a cartographic mode – the restless spaces of Vuković’s archipelagoes are the reflection of his creative search and growth.

In this process of “mind mapping” lies the artist’s fate, the exposure of intimacy of creation, in pursuit of interaction with the spectator and his reaction.

Mirjana Repanić Braun PhD (from the foreword to the exhibition catalogue at Broadway Gallery , New York, 2012)

If you’re brave enough to enter into a world where objectivity is replaced by raw emotion, then feast your eyes on the works of Davor Vukovic. Visceral in their application of layered abstractions, paintings full of vibrant color confront viewers with the . Vukovic’s work seems innocent at first. The vibrant color and free dashes on the canvas invite a lighthearted atmosphere that is as bold and intense as any first impression. Upon analysis, the paintings seem less abstract and more mystifying.

Obviously his inspiration sprang from Mediterranean lights, the Croatian part of the Adriatic, pure maritime air, clear and “drinkable” sea, wonderful and unique starry nights, and especially characteristic silence of Indian summer.

Therefore, his most recent and largest paintings (300×300 cm) which is to be shown in the artist’s second one-man exhibition at New York’s Broadway Gallery in October 2013th, although they, as always, depict the sea, islands, and submarine landscapes in tones of dark blue and indigo, they reflect the sky, the infinity of the space, the moving of myriads of stars and galaxies. Because of these reflections of dark and light sky and the bottom of the sea on the surface and in the deep water, and because of the shades, spots, and effusion of paint, these paintings evoke Monet’s large-format paintings, although they are carried out in a completely different way by using the techniques of action painting, where the background, due to the artist’s tectonic moves in the process of constructing and deconstructing, emerges on the very surface of the painting like islands emerge from the sea. They are the images of brightness and the future, but also of the depths of infinity where we can easily vanish and disappear in the artist’s ecstasy. We can also experience the paintings as our inner fears if we are unfamiliar with the unknown. When we indulge in them, we see the tide and the ebb flow through the magma of paint; we see the glittering flicker of the sun, the moon, and the stars on the surface of the good old inexhaustible sea. Soaked with thick, vital, vibrantly alive energy of the miracle of unspeakable beauty to which Vuković unreservedly opened, his most recent pictures pulsate in harmonic rhythm so that the dense radiant open colors of the coast, the undersea, and the islands, like the sea itself, are poured into his paintings, which are as transparent as water-color paintings but also saturated with ultramarine-blue, the trade-mark color of the people living in Croatian south. While composing the painting, Vuković continues with the process of superposing the layers, the process described in an inspired foreword of his last great 2013 exhibition held in Old city hall in Split, the city of Roman emperor Diocletian and the city of Vuković’s childhood and first inspiration. The author of the foreword, a prominent Croatian art historian, Mirjana Repanić Braun, Ph.D, pointed out:”This procedure resulted in the ultimate duel of two almost equally important layers: the chaotic and dynamic lower layer spread over the entire surface of the canvas and the “soothing“ upper layer of untainted colors applied in broad brushstrokes to determine the whole.

On one side, there is the impression of fragile diffusion, instability and motion, the permanent interaction with the sea, the sky, the light, and the chromatic and tonal varieties of color, and on the other hand, hidden from our eyes, there is the static nature of archipelagoes, their primordial character, their hidden connection to the land, their deep roots in the ground – an almost metaphorical paraphrase of the artist’s being. “

Abraham Lubelski (from the foreword to the exhibition catalogue at Broadway Gallery , New York, 2013 and NY Arts Magazine article titled “Adriatic Wonder”, vol. 20, 2013)