THE BOY WITH THE RED CUP - Nikola Dimitrovic

THE BOY WITH A RED CUP

Solo show at X Vitamin Gallery, Belgrade (2025)

The works shown at the X Vitamin gallery represent a new phase in the poetics and creativity of Nikola Dimitrović. In this cycle, the artist explores the idea that the truth is found not in objectification but in letting go. The drawings that Dimitrović made wearing a blindfold on his eyes bring a fresh introspective view of nudity, reminding us of the power and forcefulness of a nude. From the darkness of a creative block, which is not rare and may be dangerous, figures have emerged – bare and broken, but at the same time legible, raw and sincere. This cycle is not an improvisation but an experiment – a form of communication. Nikola presents to us what he knows, freed from the control of eyesight, while we recognize in his works what is familiar to us. So many gazes will be focusing on drawings made without looking. Is that exactly why they appear before us in their purest form? Does that make them more truthful?

His work broaches the question of nudity’s future: if for centuries it was a symbol of power, fertility, passion, and human form, what is it turning into in this era of unlimited visibility? Will the body finally break free in the digital age, or will it, paradoxically, grow even more obscure amid the onslaught of images that come and go with a single move of a finger? Finally, the digital experience of nudity is not only visual – it is also tactile, governed by touch, by swiping and touching screens. The very word digital comes from the Latin digitus – finger – underscoring that it is precisely a finger that decides what will be seen, saved, sent, or deleted. Just like in the world of apps, fingers unconsciously select and discard images, so Dimitrić’s fingers, deprived of the control of eyesight, shape drawings instinctively – revealing what truly remains etched in his subconscious.