Miranović: Vemić's horses become the medium of a universal psychological portrait of modern man

The exhibition "Dreams That Woke Me Up" by Montenegrin painter Miomir Miša Vemić opened at the "Velimir A. Leković" Art Gallery, as the first event within the art program of the 39th "Bar Chronicle" festival, the selection of which was signed by academic painter Goran Ćetković.

Visitors had the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of one of the most important contemporary Montenegrin painters of authentic expression, recognizable by the motif of the horse as a symbol of freedom, strength, inner energy and constant struggle between opposing forces. Vemić has 47 solo and a large number of collective exhibitions in Montenegro and abroad, and his works are in numerous private and public collections throughout Europe and the world.

The exhibition was opened by art historian and art critic Anastazija Miranović, who pointed out that the title of the exhibition directly refers to the personal context of the artist's spiritual and creative awakening and at the same time calls for engagement - awakening from the lulled lethargy of the world of imposed patterns of behavior, the world of dreams, delusions, prejudices, stereotypes and traditional opinions.

The motif of the horse in Vemić's creative work, according to Miranović, transcends the classic animalistic theme and becomes a universal metaphor for human endeavor, struggle, and defiance.

"Vemić continuously decodes the violent whining of his grandfather Vranac, preserved in his early childhood memories, through cycles of paintings whose themes consistently persist in the 'primordial cry' of today's man. The sound and visual shock from his childhood on Sinjajevina became the driving impulse for the artist's entire creative opus," says Miranović.

"The oneiric/nightmarish motifs of horses, in their elemental gallop, ecstasy, spasm, embrace, carry anxieties, fears, the fight against the emptiness of the contemporary, dystopian world. A virtuoso drawing is not in the function of describing a realistic anatomical physique. It would be too simple to deal exclusively with the aesthetic. For centuries, the motif of the horse figure has been exploited in culture and art history as a symbol of nobility, beauty, strength, endurance, speed, war triumph... However, here we are talking about ethics, about deformities driven by inner strength, cry and expression," Miranović emphasizes, adding that Vemic's depictions of horses are primarily psychological studies, images of character, states and a kind of visual confession about transience, powerlessness, suffering, the inviolable energy of the wilderness, its violence, beauty and strength...

Miranović, in his critical review, points out that in Vemić's work the horse becomes the medium of a universal psychological portrait of modern man.

"Animal anthropomorphism serves archetypal symbolism. Horses are the artist's 'alter ego', and also an archetypal symbol of humanity going through historical and personal calamities. Wide-eyed, gaping jaws, deformed heads - a frightened man of today who (co)feels, suffers, but also struggles with the numerous challenges of an insecure-uncertain, accelerated world. This is the art of an engaged cry/outcry against alienation/de-alienation, against the world of simulacrum, apparent spectacle, instant culture and spiritual emptiness, the world of global violence...", said Miranović, pointing out that Vemic's aesthetics of cry opposes aesthetic conformism, and that his paintings disturb, awaken and provoke (inter)action/reaction...

"Virtuoso mastery of drawing, with the dramatic color of a brisk, expressive gesture, determines/deforms the form that often dissolves to the edges of abstraction. However, it never falters in the expressive power of elementary recognizability. Neutral, dark backgrounds underline the concept of the center of the drama/story dominated by hypos displaced from a concrete historical context. Vemic's horses belong neither to the past nor to the present - they are timeless riders of the apocalypse and witnesses of eternal human custom. A man who is thrown into the historical, social, political and cultural turning points of his time, feels security only in himself, in memory, in his inner language... where the question of identity is primarily a question of integrity. Through a seemingly limited and countless times exploited motif (horse) in the history of art, Vemic manages to build a recognizable and completely autonomous artistic world. His works carry the atmosphere of the works of the great masters of the Renaissance and Baroque, a kind of subdued, warm light and deep, foreboding darkness, they carry the power of unbridled ferocity that it captivates at the same time with its enticing beauty and prophetic, anticipated terror," says Miranović.

"This peculiar, pictorial 'exodus of nostos' with the gallop of mad horses returns us to 'daydreams' in the paintings of the violent, disturbing power of Mišo Vemić," concluded Miranović.

Miomir Mišo Vemić thanked the art lovers who attended the opening of the exhibition, emphasizing that it was a special honor for him to be exhibiting for the second time at the Velimir A. Leković Art Gallery. He extended special thanks to the organizers of the Barski ljetopis, the art program selector Goran Ćetković, and Dr. Anastasija Miranović.

"It is rare that the text of a top critic coincides with what the artist himself wanted to say in his paintings. Anastazija Miranović has managed to do just that, and for that I am sincerely grateful to her. I hope that this text will be published in the catalog of my next exhibition in Nikšić," said Vemić, inviting the audience to approach his works openly and carefully. "It doesn't matter whether you like the paintings or not. I just want you to look at them carefully," said the artist.

The exhibition will be open until July 16.