The Serbian artist Nikola Sarić is often asked whether the Jesus pictures are meant ironically. The answer is: No!
In contemporary art, religion almost without exception serves as a hook for satire. Nikola Sarić’s biblical pictorial stories, on the other hand, are of a more serious nature. He wants to revisit Christian iconography in a contemporary way and bring religious content into the young art scene, for example through a cool, elegant color palette and graphic clarity. When he paints biblical narratives, such as the
birth of Christ, he does so with the eyes of a painter who has seen not only ancient Egyptian or medieval art, but also Art Nouveau and cartoons. His sceneries are a mixture of all of this, without drifting into esotericism or decorative cult.
As a student, Sarić doubted that he would be able to cope with a life as an artist. Around the same time, he discovered his faith and went to church regularly. It was a priest who convinced him not to throw away his talent.
It was only when Sarić combined faith and art and interpreted Christian themes that he found peace. So it is also understandable that his works feel at home with his buyers in hip white cubes as well as in churches or as devotional images.
By the way, the surreal 90-degree rotation of the heads means that the figures are in contact with God. Depicted are moments of spiritual closeness that, anatomically misrepresented, indicate a state that defies logic.
from: art Magazin, ISSN 0173-2781, November 2017 issue.