Stories about childhood and life on the coast, with a focus on the inner being, artist Danijela Stanković Drobnjak He depicts on his canvases, combining art and life into fairy-tale landscapes.
Her new solo exhibition "Mediterranean Imaginarium", which is the title of the cycle of works she presents, will open today in Kotor, at the City Gallery, at 19 pm.
The academic painter from Bar, recognized for her Mediterranean motifs, or sea worlds, in an interview with "Vijesti", points out that she is particularly looking forward to this exhibition and invites all interested parties to visit it.
"After many years, my wish to exhibit in Kotor has come true. It is a city that is a special part of my childhood, and my great wish was to present my works in Kotor. Therefore, it is a great pleasure and honor for me to have an exhibition in this special and significant city of Kotor," said Stanković Drobnjak ahead of the exhibition.
The exhibition is open to the public until March 16th, and brings visitors paintings made in oil on canvas, acrylic, and combined techniques.
In the text of the accompanying exhibition catalogue, signed by Katarina Gazdić Ilić, it is stated that with her paintings, "Danijela presents us with life stories about childhood, man, the sea and its coast"...
“In a combination of fine art and life, the artist creates the landscapes of her inner being in a fairy-tale way. In it, from the figurative, through the symbolic, to the associative, the urban and seascapes are united into one natural whole, bound together by mysterious threads. With the combined technique of acrylic, oil and collage, with bright and warm colors and decorative drawings, she creates her own, unique vision of the world,” writes Gazdić Ilić.
She further recognizes the motifs that stand out in Stanković Drobnjak's work.
"Sea nymphs, shells, sailboats, sailors, caught in the fishing net of her creations in a recognizable palette, form a thoughtful, playful composition within the blue of the sea, in which the eternal search for the meaning of our journey takes place," Gazdić Ilić observed.
And it is precisely in the works of this artist that "the sea tells stories about its depths, about the lives of its inhabitants, about a parallel world full of peace, balance, perfection and perfection."
"Shells symbolize the balance of the spirit and harmony, they are music. The nymph represents a woman, a mother, the pillar of the family, the mother of sailors, fishermen, who in the world of that time was the guardian of the sea and its inhabitants... The sea is in my blood, so it is an eternal theme for me," the artist previously pointed out for "Vijesti".
The exhibition "Mediterranean Imaginarium" was also presented to the audience in Bijelo Polje in 2025, and the artistic director of the local Cultural Center "Vojislav Bulatović Strunjo", Drazen Konatar, He pointed out that the artist's works take viewers on a journey through inner landscapes.
"In her cycle 'Mediterranean Imaginarium', the sea is no longer just a landscape, but a living, timeless universe of joy and nostalgia, firmly connected to her childhood and the coast on which she grew up," he added.
Stanković Drobnjak also recalled her previous cycle of works entitled "Our Stories" and pointed out that this is exactly how, from sea stories full of details, the Mediterranean imaginary was created.
Danijela Stanković Drobnjak was born in Bar in 1976. She graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje in the class of Smaila Karaila. She has been a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro since 2002. She is engaged in pedagogical work at the “Jugoslavija” Elementary School in Bar, and so far she has had a large number of solo exhibitions and collective and group presentations.
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