Crucio. Darja Bajagić
Date:
29.08.2024 20:00
Place:
Art and design gallery «A&A Interior»
Address:
RPCR Aqua Residence, Porto Montenegro
Free entry, RSVP office@aainterior.me
20:00 - Opening of the exhibition. Evening ceremony with cocktail and music.
Art & Design gallery A&A Interior kindly invites you to the opening of the exhibition:
“Crucio. Darja Bajagić”
“In her series Crucio, Darja Bajagić uses symbols whose connotations and meanings she adjusts within her idiosyncratic painting system, exploring spirituality, spiritual transformation, and the human condition—both in the context of one’s inner life and in the contemplation of the relationship between the individual and society. The artist combines ancient and medieval cultural and religious symbols with photographs from private archives, primarily from her childhood, to create a multilayered and often cryptic iconography that resists easy interpretation. Similar to Orthodox icons, the meaning is left to be perceived by the observer’s “inner eye.”
The form of these works offers a dual experience: one of subdued silence and solemn ritualism, contrasted with a disquieting darkness that hints at the hermetic nature of their meaning and visual properties. In terms of materials, the works exhibit a distinctly accentuated artistic quality that points to the decay of matter. Through dim earth tones, an array of blacks, murky hues, and the almost-informel nature of the painted surfaces, the decay of the material world is illustrated—the paintings evoke putrefaction, rotting corpses, and the earth into which everything returns”
Ana Simona Zelenović, art historian
Join us on this exciting exploration in A&A Interior from the29st of August.
Darja Bajagić was born in 1990 in Podgorica, Montenegro, and raised in Egypt and the United States. She is currently based between Luštica Peninsula, Montenegro, and Chicago, United States.
Bajagić was selected to represent Montenegro at the 60th La Biennale di Venezia in 2024 with her solo exhibition titled “It Takes an Island to Feel This Good”, curated by Ana Simona Zelenović. The exhibition was highly praised, earning a spot among the top ten pavilions in the DSCENE Guide to Venice Art Biennale 2024.
Bajagić received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon, in 2012, and her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from the Yale University School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut, in 2014, becoming the first Montenegrin national to graduate with an MFA from Yale University. Between 2008 and 2014, during her undergraduate and graduate studies combined, Bajagić was a Lemelson Scholar. Lemelson Scholars are awardees of a full-tuition merit- based scholarship—granted to a single student per year who exemplifies exceptional talent and promise—funded by the Lemelson Foundation, one of Oregon’s largest private foundations, with partners that include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Smithsonian Institution.
Selected institutional solo exhibitions include Goregeous, curated by Pierre- Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France (2020); Born Losers, curated by Laura Brown, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale- On-Hudson, New York (2018); and Unlimited Hate, curated by Sandro Droschl, Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien (KM–), Graz, Austria (2016). The catalog for Unlimited Hate, Bajagić’s first institutional solo exhibition, was published by Sternberg Press.
Selected group exhibitions have taken place at: National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic (2021); Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg (2020); Futura Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech Republic (2019); Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma, Spain (2018); Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, Lithuania (2018); Luma Westbau, Zürich, Switzerland (2017, 2015, 2014); Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, France (2015); Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2015); Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland (2014); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (MACO), Mexico (2014); Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Vienna, Austria (2013). Most recent [group] exhibitions include Very Friendly, curated by Agnes Gryczkowska, at House, Berlin, Germany (2023), and Hardcore, curated by Sadie Coles and John O’Doherty, at Sadie Coles HQ, London, United Kingdom (2023).
Bajagić’s work has been included in the 42nd Montenegrin Salon of Visual Arts, curated by Petar Ćuković, Cetinje, Montenegro (2020); the 57th October Salon, curated by Gunnar B. Kvaran and Danielle Kvaran, Belgrade, Serbia (2018); and the 13th Baltic Triennial of International Art, curated by Vincent Honoré, Vilnius, Lithuania (2018).
She has been featured in over a dozen international publications, including Artforum International, Artnet, ARTNews, Autre, Cultured Mag, CURA., Dazed, Elephant, Flash Art, Gruppe, i-D (Vice), Interview, Kaleidoscope, L’Officiel Art, Les Inrockuptibles, Mousse, New American Paintings, The New York Times, Número, Richardson, Spike, and Vulture.
Her work is in the public collections of EVN Sammlung, Maria Enzersdorf, Austria; Muzej savremene umjetnosti Crne Gore, Podgorica, Montenegro; KaviarFactory, Henningsvær, Norway; Museu de l’Art Prohibit, Barcelona, Spain; Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma, Spain; and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, Illinois.
Bajagić is represented by Tara Downs Gallery, New York; Galleri Golsa, Oslo; and New Galerie, Paris.
Curators: Ana Simona Zelenović, Anastasia Degtiareva
