In a recent reflection on the works of Miljana Nikolić presented in this exhibition, I used the term a series of works. The reason is unambiguous: the works were created within a relatively short period of time as a response to a clearly defined theme; they possess stylistic unity, repetitiveness with variation in the choice of motifs as well as in the treatment of the surface. They reveal a point of departure in what is seen, a visual interpretation of the seen with a clear poetic resonance that redefines the motif of the plain and opens a field of inner experience.

Today, a few months later, I speak of an exhibition of paintings. This terminological change has nothing to do with the fact that the works are displayed in a gallery, that is, that they have been given a temporal and spatial framework in which they will exist as a complete installation. This change occurred somewhat earlier; it occurred within the author herself, and then in my own perception. It was a maturation—quiet and unobtrusive, maturation in its most primordial form, as we encounter it in nature. It is precisely in this that I see the significance of this exhibition, not only for the artist, but also for us who are witnessing a painting in the making, a painting that bears traces of research and is persistent in its intention.

The paintings that make up this exhibition were created as a result of visual and video recordings made along the Belgrade–Novi Sad route. Constant, almost daily travel by train through this plain became a meditative routine that opened a space in which the outer world of the plain and the inner world of the author meet. Silent Territories become a place of encounter—outside and inside, our outside and personal inside—and, during the brief period in which Silent Territories inhabit the gallery space, they create a quiet space of contemplation for the viewer as well.

Miljana Nikolić, as an artist of a younger generation, surprises. She does not yield to trends, does not resort to provocation, and does not rush. She enters the art scene sincerely, devoted to painting as a vocation and as a necessity. The simple composition and reduced palette in her paintings are the result not only of a visual interpretation of the motif—the plains landscape—but also of a conscious intention to remove all “noisy” elements from the image she observes and creates. Only the plain. Only the painting. “Only” that much.

Biljana Velinović