During the ART EXPO fair, held in the Aula of the Novi Sad Fair from March 17 to Monday, March 23, BelArt Gallery is presenting two exhibitions that connect the legacy of Vojvodina’s art with the contemporary scene of emerging artists. As part of the fair’s program, the 28th “Sava Šumanović” Fine Arts Award will also be presented.
From the Treasury of Vojvodina Art: The Bečej Art Colony 1954-1998
The exhibition “From the Treasury of Vojvodina Art: The Bečej Art Colony” is realized in partnership with the Bečej City Museum, which preserves works by artists who participated in the Bečej Art Colony from 1954 to 1998. Founded in the early 1950s, the Bečej Art Colony was one of the key sites of postwar modernization of the visual arts scene in Vojvodina. Emerging in a period of cultural decentralization, the colony was conceived as a space for encounter and exchange among artists of different generations and poetics.
In direct dialogue with the landscape of the Tisa River and the urban environment of Bečej, artists developed new artistic approaches and explored contemporary visual expressions. Colonies such as Ečka, Bečej, Senta, and Bačka Topola played a significant role in the democratization of art and in the transition of the Yugoslav art scene from socialist realism to modernism and abstraction. The collective work of artists in these colonies encouraged the exchange of ideas and the formation of new artistic circles, making them an important infrastructure of Vojvodina’s visual arts life.
The exhibition will feature works by artists including Milan Konjović, Zoran Petrović, Nikola Graovac, Bogomila Karlavaris, as well as Jožef Ač, Đorđe Bošan, Milan Kerac, Stevan Maksimović, Milivoj Nikolajević, Aleksandar Luković, Petrik Pal, Dušan Milovanović, and Mirjana Šipoš.
Galerija na štrafti: The Emerging Artists of Novi Sad
The second exhibition organized by BelArt presents a contemporary perspective through works by emerging artists from the Gallery on the Promenade project, an authentic Novi Sad initiative launched in 2019 through a collaboration between BelArt Gallery, the Red Cross of Novi Sad, and the Rotary Club Novi Sad Dunav.
The exhibition features works by young artists Anastasija Maletaškić and Sara Savić, whose pieces are part of the project’s annual program. The exhibition is curated by Vesna Latinović.
In her series “The Art of Procrastination,” Anastasija Maletaškić explores the contemporary phenomenon of procrastination, depicting scenes of everyday life through the repetition of simplified figures and vivid color relationships. In her cycle “Sterile Touch,” Sara Savić starts from a sense of discomfort in public transportation spaces, creating minimal, almost hermetic environments in which the absence of the human figure emphasizes feelings of alienation and the impossibility of contact.
The Gallery on the Promenade project, located on the former iconic Novi Sad promenade on Mihajla Pupina Boulevard, represents a successful example of an artistic initiative in public space. Its aim is to promote young artists and bring contemporary art closer to a wider audience, while also recalling the city’s cultural history through a kind of “gallery street” in the center of Novi Sad.
Anastasija Maletaškić – Gubljenje vremena 2 – Akril na platnu – 40x40cm – 2025.
Ač Jožef, “Kraj sela”, ulje na lesonitu, 38 x 62 cm, 1954. godina, Bečej, I.b. 1
Sara Savić, Sterilni dodir, 100×130
Milan Kerac, “Bečej”, ulje na platnu, 100 x 50 cm, 1966. godina, Bečej – Novi Sad, I.b.197