SADKO HADŽIHASANOVIĆ
The Best of Sadko
15 June – 4 July 2026
Sadko Hadžihasanović (1959) has been living and working in Toronto for three decades, bridging thecultural models of the West and the transitions of the East. Among the fortunate circumstances is his artistic education, through which he assimilated the qualities of both the Sarajevo and Belgrade
schools of art. Likewise, during the 1980s, his participation in relevant exhibitions earned him a reputation as an established young artist in Yugoslavia. The shifts in the poetic and visual concepts of his work over decades have been organic, and each change of environment at key points in his journey—from Sarajevo to Belgrade to Toronto—heightened initial questions of identity, ideology, aesthetics and ethics, mainstream versus local, the autonomy of the artwork, and the culture of artistic language.
Moving to Canada was certainly a major challenge; life experience confirms that resilient people with vision do overcome the hardships of emigration, adapt to the social norms of a new environment, and face existential and artistic challenges. It can be said that by choosing a fluid conceptual strategy,
Sadko Hadžihasanović established himself in the new environment, continued creating without interruption, secured gallery representation, and carefully sustained his presence on the regional art scene of his primary homeland. Over the past two decades, the artist held several solo exhibitions in Belgrade; the new exhibition at the Graphic Collective Gallery represents a continuation of the refinement of the poetic discourse of his intricate autopoetic structures. Through the self-ironic title The Best of Sadko, borrowed from his 2005 Belgrade exhibition, this contemporary nomad has managed, despite everything, to preserve his own artistic hedonism.
Notable is the artist’s concept of claiming creative freedom through the use of recycled materials—decorative elements, patterns from industrially printed wallpapers, or printed canvas, often with figurative or floral motifs—integrated into the work itself, where, depending on the artistic content, these seemingly unfinished pieces remain open to new readings.
In recent years, Hadžihasanović has directed his artistic energy toward research in printmaking and digital media; small copper plates serve as matrices for printmaking and for drawing/painting, while in digital media frames of everyday life’s harsh reality are read through hundreds of hand-drawn
animations.

Themes of identity, memory, and migration, in synergy with social criticism, dark humour, and the immigrant experience, are expressed in drawings, paintings, collages, prints, assemblages, and video works that are exhibited at the Graphic Collective Gallery. He was an active member of the art group Zvono in Sarajevo during the 1980s, contributing to
refinement of the group’s ideas, which, while fostering collective creativity, sought respect for individuality. His spiritual brotherhood with Zvono aligns closely with the idea of equating art with everyday life, from which his work stems and to which it returns at various phases.

“74th May Exhibition of Graphics of the Belgrade Circle – Dedicated to Continuity and Courage”

“Dedicated to Continuity and Courage” is the title of the 74th “May Exhibition of Graphics”, which will open on Monday, 18 May 2026, at the Graphic Collective Gallery. On this occasion, the Graphic Collective’s traditional “Great Seal” Award will also be presented.
The question of what graphic art is today and how it should be understood is not a simple one. The blurring of media boundaries, critical re-examination of materials and processes (with emphasis on process and conceptuality), and the reinterpretation of the foundations of graphic art are common
features of major European exhibitions, such as recent editions of the “Graphic Arts Biennial” in Ljubljana or the current project Frontispiece/Precipice in Porto, Portugal, in which our artist Jelena Sredanović is also participating.
Within this broader context of plural approaches, this year’s exhibition at the Graphic Collective presents one possible selection of contemporary graphic art production: 148 works by artists from Serbia, Montenegro, and the Republic of Srpska are shown, with the participation of several artists from abroad. The age range of participants—from 1946 to 2006—speaks of continuity, perseverance, and courage, while the presence of a large number of emerging artists confirms the growing interest in graphic art as a relevant and stimulating field of artistic expression today. The exhibition features
numerous polyptychs as well as non-standard and large-scale works. In addition to traditional prints on paper, artists experiment with various supports and materials, including prints on canvas, silk, foil, wood, and acrylic, as well as embroidery on printmaking paper. The thematic diversity follows contemporary trends and demonstrates vital artistic concepts, ranging from personal and intimate to socially engaged narratives. The continuity of this event (its 74-year history) speaks to the endurance of a unique artistic dialogue, its ability to remain a relevant space of encounter between diverse experiences and poetics across more than seven decades, and a key point in the development of the
domestic printmaking scene. By re-examining the foundations of graphic art through its own identity and reflecting global changes shaping the contemporary field of graphic art, this year’s “May Exhibition” at the Graphic Collective, “Dedicated to Continuity and Courage”, offers one of the possible answers to the question of what graphic art is today and here.
For the “74th May Exhibition” 2026, the jury for the “Great Seal” Award consisted of Milica Bjelanović, printmaker; Milena Marjanović, art historian; and Nikola Velicki, printmaker and chair of the jury. After carefully reviewing the works of 148 artists and narrowing the shortlist of nominees, the jury by majority vote awarded the “Great Seal” Award to Jovanka Mladenović for the installation “Entropy of Landscape – Between Control and Error 01”, an experiment in a combined technique of linocut on acrylic and paper.

Jovanka Mladenović (1979) graduated, completed her master’s, and earned her PhD at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. As a scholarship holder of the French government in 2007/2008, she studied at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Her extensive CV reflects persistence and talent: she has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, residencies, seminars, and workshops in Belgrade, New York, Washington, Beijing, Paris, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Helsinki, Munich, and other cities. She is the recipient of several awards and scholarships; her works are held in private and
public collections in Serbia and abroad. She is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Contemporary Arts in Belgrade. Jovanka Mladenović is an artist of refined perception and cultivated sensibility. In her artistic poetics, graphic art is a living artistic medium whose forms are free and whose essential questions remain open. The awarded work is executed in linocut technique, but the print is not made
directly on paper; instead, an old acrylic layer is applied to the paper and then run through the press, creating an interesting relief onto which the linocut matrix is subsequently printed. Through these overlays and their repetition, the work gains rhythm and dynamism. It is precisely this experimental
approach, precisely controlled by artistic intuition, that distinguished this graphic installation at the “May Exhibition” for the “Great Seal” Award.
Also shortlisted for the “Great Seal” Award was the work of David Mlađović.

Tafil Musović – Forgotten Drawings and More

20 April – 9 May 2026

In the critical reception of Musović’s work, a strong intellectual foundation is evident, along with an affinity for tradition and its sources, and the cultivation of links with cultural history and major artistic references—Pessoa, Lorca, Beckmann, Bacon, Uccello, Masaccio, Munch, Tešić, Marčetić—who form a powerful framework for the painter’s dialogue on the perennial themes of identity and existence. This is a culture under pressure, in which the terms exodus and/or exile emerge as markers of time, condensed into strong visual signs of states and conditions; fluid metaphorical reflections of the voice of conscience are legible within a critical reception shaped by an archetypal, intuitive, and contemplative flow.

Driven by intense creative energy and dedication, this selection of 55 works from his oeuvre marks fifty years since the artist’s debut exhibition at the Graphic Collective.

Indicative is Musović’s self-reflective note in the catalogue: “We live in a time burdened with everything and anything. Or in a time in which an eternal winter is emerging. A world without people. Speaking about forgotten drawings is a moment of recollection and, at the same time, a moment in which reality yields to the past. I am fortunate that my life companion, for about forty years now, has unobtrusively followed my work. When my drawing begins to wander from one place to another, she knows: it is time for that drawing to move to the part of the studio where the drawers are. I usually keep nothing in those drawers, as some of them are difficult to open, which annoys me. In this way, a large part of my drawings has moved into those drawers. The life of these drawings, through the drawers, has been extended in my forgetting, as with new works their existence is almost completely erased. One day my wife appeared, perhaps a year ago, with more than a hundred drawings I thought I had destroyed. I was pleasantly surprised. And so these forgotten drawings, instead of remaining in drawers, will enter the Graphic Collective Gallery. My wife, Jessica, saved them from the one who drew them. (Still, I am not Gogol’s Taras Bulba.)

Ultimately, what are these works? They are part of my new works. In fact, they are paintings on paper. Reality is a scale with two sides: on one is the present, on the other the past. The present is arrogant and intrusive and forgets how much it depends on the past. It is not an enthusiast of dialectics. I have learned: there is a secret hand, not of the market (Adam Smith), but a secret hand of love that cares for me and my work.” — written as an Ode to his wife last March in Amsterdam.

“OLIVERA BASTA – Like Time, Like Trace”

Prints on Handmade Paper

6 – 18 April 2026.

Olivera Basta has been present on the art scene of the Republic of Srpska, Serbia, and the wider region for two decades, and through her continuous practice she has developed a convincing artistic expression. She finds her creative impulses in natural forms, which she transforms through careful selection into stylised graphic signs. In their fragmentary nature, universal themes of identity, fertility, and other fundamental life processes can be read. A significant aspect of Basta’s practice is her experimental approach to handmade paper, which she produces herself and which becomes a unique matrix for printmaking. This process gives a distinct materiality, tone, and sensibility characteristic of her printmaking practice.

The prints of Olivera Basta represent a convincing artistic expression that, with a degree of optimism, affirms the vitality of the classical printmaking process and the inexhaustibility of its aesthetic potential. Works with a recognisable gestural quality, with stylised forms of seeds, leaves, droplets, or plum fruit, testify to the artist’s interest in universal themes of fertility, birth, and life cycles. The artist affirms the idea of self-knowledge through continuous questioning of her origin, local living and creative environment, as well as the initial impulses of artistic action. Her works point to the cultivation of the visual qualities of printmaking processes and the dense material texture of handmade paper, which are integral to her authorial concept.

Olivera Basta, born in 1986 in Banja Luka (née Šipka), graduated in printmaking in 2009 from the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka. At the same institution, she completed her master’s studies in painting in 2016 and enrolled in master’s studies in printmaking. She has been exhibiting since 2006, with 16 solo exhibitions in Banja Luka, Šabac, Pančevo, Belgrade, Prijedor, Sarajevo, Maribor, and others. She has participated in more than 180 group exhibitions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Romania, Poland, the United States, Canada, Slovenia, China, Italy, Spain, Hungary, North Macedonia, Georgia, and other countries. She is the recipient of several awards in printmaking. She is a laureate of the Graphic Collective “Small Seal Award” (2020) and “Great Seal Award” (2024).

She lives and works in Banja Luka.

Jasna Gulan Ružić

“Line and Surface”

Drawings and Prints

16 March – 2 April 2026

On Monday, 16 March at 7 p.m., the exhibition of Jasna Gulan Ružić will open at the Graphic Collective Gallery, introduced by Prof. Zoran Todović.

The exhibition comprises two poetic and visual units of drawings and prints created over the past two years, in which the artist consistently develops an aesthetic discourse established 25 years ago, at the very beginning of her artistic practice. The series “Line and Surface” unites two interconnected series of prints and drawings. The prints from the series of the same name, executed in linocut technique, were realised within the “Sićevo Printmaking Workshop” in 2024. The drawing series “Anatomy of the Surface”, executed in Chinese ink, was created during a residency at “Szent András Castle” within the “Danube Art Line” programme in Hungary in 2025. The artist continues to develop these creative syntheses of drawing and printmaking.

The drawings from “Anatomy of the Surface”, executed in Chinese ink, explore possible relations between line and surface, as well as the relationship between black and white, with a focus on the search for delicate tonal values within a rich scale of blacks. Softer and more homogeneous cuts into the linoleum matrix produce simplified lines and strong contrasts. The pure plane of linocut prints is characterised by a tactile relationship between the printed form and red and black colour values. In both bodies of work, flatness remains the dominant visual starting point within which the energy of volume and the plasticity of form can be sensed.

In the genesis of this work, certain visual and aesthetic values have crystallised—simple artistic means and a restrained palette, refined, purified, and crystalline compositional structures. The creative approach of Jasna Gulan is understood as an existential necessity, and it is upon this recognisable visual expression and its articulation that existence rests, as well as the relationship between space and time.

Jasna Gulan Ružić (1976, Novi Sad) graduated, completed her master’s, and earned her PhD at the Department of Graphic Arts, Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, where she is currently an associate professor. Her fields of research include drawing, printmaking, conservation, and restoration. She has exhibited in 24 solo exhibitions and around 100 group exhibitions in Serbia and abroad, and is the recipient of numerous awards.

Tatjana Ilić – “Life in Paradox”

5 – 20 February 2026

On Thursday, 5 February, the exhibition “Life in Paradox” by Tatjana Ilić opens at the “Graphic Collective Gallery”. Her artistic practice is grounded in the medium of performance. Since the 1990s, her work has been defined by a bold authorial concept and a critical engagement with fundamental questions of existence.

The exhibition presents drawings and photographs, part of an artistic-documentary concept and an integral component of the visual and object-based materialisation of the artist’s performance, performed in an intimate space before an audience. During the performance, the artist placed a bunting (a bird) in her mouth and then covered her face with a mask from a mass-produced kit titled “PERSONAL KIT for the Protection of Citizens under Mask MC.1”.

The exhibition builds on conceptual foundations established in 2007 with the installation “I Carry a Bird Because of My Artistic Work”, presented at the Graphic Collective space on Obilićev venac. The bird, which became the subject of a dispute during a customs procedure, and freedom of movement—an inherent condition of free existence—through this action-based performance exposed the absurdities of bureaucratic barriers.

In a similar key, “Life in Paradox” addresses the symptoms and critical points of an administratively and capitalist-structured reality in which existence—oscillating between banal consumerism and intentionally generated pandemic fear—is often measured and defined through notions of items, quantity, condition, assortment (of both objects and living beings), inspection, protection, control, and safety… the possibility of free existence within spatially bounded conditions of life/breathing, protection in the face of ecological catastrophe through means that themselves become accumulated elements of ecocide. The bunting is stripped of cultural burden and symbolic-ideological implications within visual constructions of power and thus functions as a signifier of life and of art itself, writes Miroslav Sapundžić in the exhibition catalogue.

Tatjana Ilić (1966, Belgrade) graduated in 1995 from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. She continued her studies in the class of Jannis Kounellis at the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts, where she was awarded the title of Meisterschülerin in 1997. She received her PhD in 2012 with the thesis “The Performative Image in Photo-Thermovision Performance” at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. Since 2003, she has been a member of the International Artists’ Guild (IKG). She has exhibited widely in Serbia and abroad (Germany, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Luxembourg, Austria), including the collateral programme of the 50th Venice Biennale. Her work has been featured in the “Analytical Survey of Global Performance Art”, published by the European Institute for Performance. Her works are held in numerous private and public collections. Since 1993, she has been a member of ULUS.

Jovana Subašić

Artificial Intelligence – Creator or Plagiarist

23 February – 7 March 2026

Artistic Doctoral Project

In Artificial Intelligence – Creator or Plagiarist, Jovana Subašić examines the use of artificial intelligence in art from theoretical, practical, creative, and ethical perspectives. Starting from digital drawings in the form of illustrations and comics, which she further develops with the assistance of artificial intelligence models, she addresses the same conceptual tasks through two distinct creative processes. Since AI-generated content relies on existing images and other digital material available online, it raises questions about the boundaries between human creativity and machine-generated visual outcomes, as well as issues of originality, authorship, and copyright.

Jovana Subašić (Belgrade, 1997) completed her undergraduate and master’s studies at the Graphic Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts. With this exhibition, she completes her doctoral studies. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally.

Aleksandra Đukić – Portrait of Narcissus

23 February – 7 March 2026

Artistic Doctoral Project

The doctoral exhibition Portrait of Narcissus by Aleksandra Đukić presents works that, through various artistic approaches and media (painting on the mirror, drawing, embroidery), explore the phenomena of identity, narcissism, vanity, and mechanisms of manipulation. The polyptych Wall of Narcissus is the central work of the project, in which the artist examines narcissistic disorder as a dynamic process of self-reflection and self-affirmation, where identity is continuously questioned and reconstructed. Drawing on Jung’s concept of the Self, she uses the mirror as a central element of the work’s structure, introducing an element of unpredictability into the process. Reflecting the relationship between reality and its image, the mirror also points to the fragility and mutability of personal identity.

Aleksandra Đukić (Belgrade, 1997) is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, where she completed her undergraduate and master’s studies. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally and has participated in number of art conferences and residency programmes abroad.

The First 76

International Small Format Graphics Exhibition

18 December 2025 – 24 January 2026.

This exhibition traces the decades-long history of the Graphic Collective (GC), affirming its position as an artistic event that celebrates the very nature of graphic art. It embodies the vital idea of preserving the role of a mediator in creating and nurturing dialogue between authors, the gallery, and audiences through the continuity of its programme activities and the strong tradition of which this project is a part. As this exhibition is also an important focal point for presenting the achievements of contemporary artistic production and an opportunity for critical reflection on the field of graphic art. It engages with the identity and conceptual frameworks of this practice.

Despite the brutality of the times in which we live, we believe that the mission of culture is most healing. As in 1994, at the Second International Small Format Graphics Exhibition, this exhibition, marking the 76th anniversary of the GC, is also international. The friendship within the artistic community, which strengthens creativity and has a positive impact on society, has been reaffirmed. Alongside 122 authors from Serbia, 89 international artists responded to our invitation — artists who have held solo exhibitions at the GC, participated in its programmes, or are, following the principle of shared networks, friends of our friends. This selection brings together exceptional artistic achievements by established authors from 34 countries across all continents — from Japan, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, and the United States to European countries. Through a creative dialogue among 209 authorial signatures and 300 works, we sought to examine autonomous artistic practices and journeys through imagined worlds, as well as the convergence of diverse artistic languages and varied poetic foundations. By inviting the artistic communities from other countries and parts of the world, to join our artists in affirming graphic art as both a school of art and life, and a fluid space of the spirit, we have reinforced the belief that the mission of culture is both beneficial and generous.

P.S. The idea of authors gathered around the Graphic Collective is still alive — that an original work of art should enter every home and, as a meaningful gift, animate, delight, educate, and cultivate a new audience. As the exhibition enters its eighth decade, new editions continue. Works by artists from the national selection remain at the same price as last year.

Since 1991, the Small Seal Award has been awarded at the Small Format Graphics Exhibition. This year, the Jury consisting of Biljana Vuković, printmaker; Viktor Mijatović, printmaker; and Miroslav Sapundžić, art historian, unanimously decided to award this prize to Nada Denić, visual artist. Nada Denić’s work confirms the inexhaustible nature of personal creative potential in exploring visual solutions within the field of abstract graphic expression. A sculptor by her primary artistic vocation, in her practice her interests have also been realised through other visual disciplines, while drawing and printmaking are today at the centre of her practice. Her recent bodies of work are closely aligned with the modernist discourse of geometric abstraction, which serves as her conceptual framework. The plasticity of visual form unfolds in inexhaustible variations close to Op Art — through the repetition of linear flows, wave-like movements, and their balanced black-and-white rhythms. The title of the awarded work, Move, evocatively points to the power of artistic and social impulses in freeing us from the static constraints of rigid matrices.