Nataša Kokić
Nataša Kokić (1979) graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts and later received a Master's degree. Since 2001, she has been exhibiting at group and solo exhibitions in the country and abroad. She stayed in Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, America and Serbia as part of residency programs and won several awards - Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos (2014) and Vladimir Velicković award for drawing (2013). Several works are in private and public collections. She works as an assistant at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade.
I started as a painter who was trying to use painting in a, at the time, innovative ways. Repetition, mental saturation with one image - paintings were supposed to act together as one piece. Through such representation of works I was emphasizing the importance of individuality in society, that even if we do act as a collective body, we have important roles within that body. Through the years my work did change, not just in concept, but also in execution. From oil painting I made a shift toward drawing and sound. I started experimenting with ways of presenting works in gallery space - from created ambience, toward usage of the installation of the works itself as a work. The way I layer drawings on top of each other suggest the passage of time and how one act leads to another – consequences of any action. The usage of wood panels started as a practical installation hack – layering and flexibility of the installation itself. But now, I’m also interested in wood as a natural material that holds up something manmade, natural material cut to a certain size and tamed to do a job.
