This year’s recipient of the “Sava Šumanović” Award for Fine and Visual Arts, presented by the BelArt Gallery and ART EXPO of the Novi Sad Fair, is Nemanja Nikolić, a multimedia artist from Belgrade.
The jury members are Svetlana Mladenov, art historian; Nela Tonković, art historian and curator of the Contemporary Gallery Subotica; and Vesna Latinović, gallerist and founder of BelArt Gallery.
Photo: Novosadski sajam
Nemanja Nikolić (1987) graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Department of Painting, in 2010, where he also earned his PhD in 2019. He is currently employed at the same faculty as an associate professor. He is the initiator and one of the founders of the U10 Art Space, an independent venue dedicated to supporting young contemporary artists. He has been exhibiting independently since 2010. Among other venues, he has held solo exhibitions at the Cultural Centre of Belgrade, Galerie Dix9 Hélène Lacharmoise in Paris, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro, ERD Gallery in Seoul, Rima Gallery in Belgrade and Kragujevac, B2 Gallery in Belgrade, as well as at U10.
He has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Serbia and abroad, including CaixaForum in Madrid and Barcelona, Kunsthal KAdE, Künstlerhaus Wien, the 56th, 57th, and 60th October Salon in Belgrade, the 20th Art Biennale in Pančevo, and the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. He has received several awards and recognitions, including the Special Prize at the 60th October Salon for the group project “Working Spaces” (2024), the Drawing Award of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (2021), and the Drawing Award of the Vladimir Veličković Foundation (2011).
“Taking into account Nemanja Nikolić’s work in recent years, particularly his participation in the 60th October Salon in 2024, where he received the Special Prize for the group project ‘Working Spaces,’ the jury carefully considered both the continuity of the artist’s long-term exploration of drawing and painting, and the ways in which his most recent work has opened up additional questions about the conditions of work, production, and visibility in contemporary artistic practice,” the jury stated in its explanation.
They further note that, since his early works created during his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Nikolić has consistently developed an expression based on precisely constructed, often narratively charged scenes in which elements of intimacy, collective experience, and the history of visual representation intertwine. Starting from drawing as a fundamental discipline, the artist has built a recognizable visual language in which figuration goes beyond mere description and becomes a means of analyzing complex social and institutional relations. In this sense, the project “Working Spaces” represents both a logical continuation and a step forward in relation to his previous practice: instead of the workspace remaining merely an implicit backdrop to the artistic act, it becomes its central theme and a site of critical reflection.
“Through his parallel roles as an artist, educator, and initiator of the independent platform U10, Nikolić actively contributes to shaping the contemporary art scene, building a bridge between an individual artistic position and collective models of support and collaboration. It is precisely this dual orientation—toward introspective reflection on his own practice and toward responsible engagement within the community—that, we believe, reflects the vitality and openness of contemporary art today,” the jury concluded.
In the combination of consistency in personal expression and a willingness to critically examine his own professional environment, the jury recognizes a quality that makes Nikolić’s work relevant not only within a single scene, but also in the broader context of contemporary artistic production.
Photo: Novosadski sajam
Photo: Novosadski sajam