Still Life, 100cm x 70cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2014

Focus On: Pavle Maksimovic!

The work of Pavle Maksimovic is really impressive. His painting are unusual. I like the fact that he is able to describe so much with his drawings. Palve’s world is full of mysteries, take a look for yourself.

Creator, Acrylic on canvas, 100cm x 70cm, 2013
Creator, Acrylic on canvas, 100cm x 70cm, 2013

KALTBLUT: Who are you, where are you from and what do you do?

Pavle Maksimovic: I am a painter, born in 1981. in Belgrade, Serbia

D27, 42cm x 31cm, Ink on paper, 2013
D27, 42cm x 31cm, Ink on paper, 2013
D32, 42cm x 31cm, Ink on paper, 2013
D32, 42cm x 31cm, Ink on paper, 2013

KALTBLUT: What is your artistic background?

Pavle Maksimovic: I finished the Design school in Belgrade, before I was accepted to the Art Academy of Novi Sad in 2001. After finishing my studies in 2006. I was accepted in Artist Association of Serbia (ULUS).

Viewpoint 2, 100cm x 70cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2012
Viewpoint 2, 100cm x 70cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2012
Viewepoint, 54cm x 37.5cm, Ink on paper, 2013
Viewepoint, 54cm x 37.5cm, Ink on paper, 2013

KALTBLUT: A lot of your paintings and drawings are series which I find really interesting. Could you try to explain us how is your working process. How do you decided how many pieces are going to be in a serie…

Pavle Maksimovic: I never created a painting and thought that there was nothing more I could do with it. Every painting is a never ending story, so I am compelled by my own demons to wrestle with the subject for quite some time. Sometimes paintings from a series, like “Witnesses X,Y”, are so intertwined, that they exist, almost as one single painting. Beside these obvious examples, every single painting, weather envisioned as a part of a taught through series, or a single peace, affect the next painting almost as a rule. Painting is a process, and as such it owes much to a steady, and often slow progress.

Witnesses 6, 110cm x 50cm, Oil and woodcut on masonite, 2008
Witnesses 6, 110cm x 50cm, Oil and woodcut on masonite, 2008
Witnesses 11, 130cm x 50cm, Woodcut on masonite, 2008
Witnesses 11, 130cm x 50cm, Woodcut on masonite, 2008
Witnesses 13, 110cm x 50cm, Oil and woodcut on masonite, 2008
Witnesses 13, 110cm x 50cm, Oil and woodcut on masonite, 2008
Witnesses 16, 130cm x 50cm, Oil and woodcut on masonite, 2008
Witnesses 16, 130cm x 50cm, Oil and woodcut on masonite, 2008

KALTBLUT: All of these series almost looks like storyboard..

Pavle Maksimovic: Well, in case of already mentioned “Witnesses X,Y”, the series was envisioned as a single installation. I had one painting finished for quite some time, before I noticed it again, and realised its potential. After that, it was only the matter of materializing the idea in a short period of a few months. The single minded approach to this, or similar projects, affected its aesthetic form and created, in some way a perpetual storyboard.

KALTBLUT: How long, approximatively does it takes you to created one serie?

Pavle Maksimovic: Painting, or art expression of any kind, in my opinion and experience, is a hard earned process. It is a never ending trial of climbs and falls. I was never able to relate to the romantic idea of relaxing hours of painting and enjoyment in a “free your mind with a smile” type of creativity. Wether I was doing video projects, paintings or any other form of expression, I always found my self in an almost tantalising state of mind. In that respect the time needed to create a single painting is almost impossible to predict. When the series is preconceived as a single minded installation, the time to put it together is notably shorter, and can be materialised in matter of few months. More classical way of contracting a series from individual paintings created in a given period of time, can take years.

Sample - 5 Rising , Oil & mixed medium on canvas, 200cm x 150cm, 2009
Sample – 5 Rising , Oil & mixed medium on canvas, 200cm x 150cm, 2009
Sample - Without breath , Oil & mixed medium on canvas, 200cm x 150cm, 2009
Sample – Without breath , Oil & mixed medium on canvas, 200cm x 150cm, 2009
Sample IK. , Oil on canvas, 120cm x 100cm, 2009
Sample IK. , Oil on canvas, 120cm x 100cm, 2009

KALTBLUT: Do you have any mentor, artist that inspires you?

Pavle Maksimovic: We are the sum of our experiences, and artists who walk through our life, whether they are long dead, or still living, are a big part of it. I never had a mentor in a classic way, but the beauty of art is, among other things, in the dialog that you create with the artist through his work.

Explorer, 100cm x 70cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2012
Explorer, 100cm x 70cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2012

KALTBLUT: What are you working on at the moment?

Pavle Maksimovic: Last couple of years, my attention slowly steered in direction of mechanical supplements and biorobotics. It is not the vision of the distant future that i am interested in, but the realities of today and tomorrow. It is our character and personality in respect to these changes, that interest me.

Interview by Nicolas Simoneau

Levant, the meaning is.150cm x 120cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2014
Levant, the meaning is.150cm x 120cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2014
One of those days, 120cm x 100cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2014
One of those days, 120cm x 100cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2014

Contact:

www.pavlemaksimovic.rs

@Facebook

@Google+