Presentation of the 27th “Sava Šumanović” Award
The 27th presentation of the “Sava Šumanović” award for visual and fine arts, organized by BelArt Gallery and Art Expo of the Novi Sad Fair, will take place on Thursday, March 20, at 12:00 PM. This year’s awardee is Goran Despotovski, a multimedia artist from Novi Sad. Goran Despotovski (1972) graduated from the Higher School of Fine and Applied Arts in Belgrade in 1995. He continued his academic education at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, where he completed his undergraduate studies in 1999, followed by a master’s degree in painting in 2003, and earned a Doctor of Arts in the field of visual arts in 2018. Since 2004, he has been employed at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, achieving the status of full professor in 2019. He has served as President of the Association of Fine Artists of Vojvodina since 2017. He has held sixty-eight solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in numerous galleries and museums in Serbia and abroad. He is the author of several long-term projects within AUNS, as well as projects under the auspices of SULUV. His works are held in public and private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, the Gallery of Matica Srpska (Sava Stepanov Gift Collection), the Gallery of Contemporary Art Niš, the Contemporary Gallery Zrenjanin, and the Contemporary Gallery Subotica. The jury, composed of Svetlana Mladenov, art historian; Nela Tonković, art historian and curator of the Contemporary Gallery Subotica; and Vesna Latinović, gallerist and founder of BelArt Gallery, made a unanimous decision, taking into account Goran Despotovski’s many years of work, particularly his participation in the exhibition Danube Dialogues 2024: On (Self-)Destruction and Against It, as well as his solo exhibition Traces of Existence – Subscript III, held in 2023 at the Contemporary Gallery Subotica. The “Sava Šumanović” award was established in 1999 with the aim of affirming, in contemporary times, the work of one of the most significant creators in the history of Serbian and Yugoslav art and culture—Sava Šumanović (1896–1942)—and to encourage and effectively contribute to the dynamic development of artistic ideas in the Serbian art scene. BelArt Gallery, a traditional partner of the International Art Fair Art Expo, will, during the fair from March 18 to 24 in the Novi Sad Fair Hall, present the exhibition From the Treasury of Vojvodina Art, showcasing ten prominent Vojvodina artists who were active in the second half of the 20th century: Mira Brtka, Nikola Graovac, Milan Kečić, Milan Kerac, Milan Konjović, Milivoj Nikolajević, Ankica Oprešnik, Boško Petrović, and Jovan Soldatović. Although nearly contemporaries, each of these artists left their individual mark on the Vojvodina art scene, anticipating a contemporary approach to painting and introducing local art into the modern currents of Yugoslav painting.