DANILO STOJANOVIĆ: NIGHT CRAVINGS

Born in Istria and living in Milan, Italy, painter Danilo Stojanović delivers rich tapestries of opposing values. Typically smaller in scale and filled with colder hues of blue, green, and gray punctuated by reds, a fluid and fluctuating atmosphere builds within each image. These enigmatic scenes abandon geometric perspective, transcending the need for rigid spatial composition. With objects and figures both embedded and in a state of transformation, it is through these metamorphic elements that the influence of Italian Metaphysics finds its place in Stojanović’s work. Presenting eight new paintings, Night Cravings follows the artist’s online presentation with the gallery last year titled Shoreline, which surveyed half a decade of work connected through the eternal motif of water. Eschewing the structure of distinct series to work on a continual basis, this is a pictorial journey that unfolds and evolves.

 

Where dichotomies reign supreme, Stojanović’s shadowy icons are alien, alienated, and alienating; presenting organic and anthropomorphic characteristics yet forever belonging to a distant dimension that remains unrelated to terrestrial naturalism. Their vague recognizability evokes that of a dreamscape, scattered with the remnants of a living (if not exactly human) presence in juxtaposition with objects like bottles, candle stands, and luscious bouquets evocative of 17th-century veritas. These scenes take place within an imaginary “middle ground” wherein the outlines of figures are softened by the darkness into fleeting specters, steeped in that secret, silent quality of nighttime hours. What is the phenomenon of Craving? A great yearning; a driving need; or an earnest asking for. A desire that sinks inward; a condition requiring relief; a deep fantasy void, like the Night. In Stojanović’s visions, the two meet.

 

Danilo Stojanović (b. 1989, Pula, Croatia) lives and works in Milan, Italy. He graduated Painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia (BFA 2013; MFA 2018). Recent exhibitions include Les Enchantées, Frontviews, DE (2023); Phantom Brush, A plus A Gallery, IT (2023); Midnight Blossom, CAR Gallery, IT (2022); Carnival Dream, G/ART/EN Gallery, IT (2022); Mourning the Red Cactus, Andrea Festa Fine Art, IT (2021); 07, PM/AM, UK (2021); Les Danses Nocturnes, Eastcontemporary/Spread Museum, FR (2021); Sworm: Balla Balaclavas and the Shithead Baroque, Super Dutchess, NY (2020); and Be careful what you wish for (the fire is in the underbelly), U10 Art Space, RS (2019). His first solo exhibition in New York, Night Cravings follows Stojanović's solo presentation at JamesFuentes.Online in 2022.