Sofija Ž. Milenković
ON NIKOLA VELICKI’S EXHIBITION „HOW I FELT ON NEPAL AND WHY I DIDN’T GO“

The series of his works with the main protagonist interpreted from the children’s television cartoon Peppa Pig[1]Nikola Velicki first showed to the public at his exhibitions Peppa and Fulstop!held in the Gallery of the Cultural Centre in Belgrade (2011) and Peppa and Three Dots…in the Museum in Bela Crkva (2023). From the first exhibition to the present day his works show a visual transformation of the main protagonist, Peppa Pig as an issue of intuitive experiments in different techniques, media and technologies. Velicki commences his practices for this series in linocut and big format drawings in situ; in Gallery Rima in Kragujevac with exhibition How I felt on Nepal and why I didn’t gohe will present for the first time his paintings on canvas.

In the creation of Nikola Velicki the drawing was initially only a linoleum matrix proposition for a graphic print on paper. From its preparatory function in the area of graphic art, it gradually acquired the status of an autonomous artwork as the initial ground for the artist’s visual capacities research. The close tie-up of the drawing and the graphic print is a specific feature of Velicki’s contemplative process and can most obviously be noticed in his desire to achieve the effects of a graphic print by drawings on paper. With his profound knowledge of the traditional graphic art techniques, Velicki is aware that every cut or bump defines the work and that the luxury of the print depends on the skill of engraving. Just like the trace of a linocut, the artist intends to save every spontaneous spot, crinkle, roughness or fissure as an individual linoleum cut and considers them the necessary visual art elements of the final drawing.

Drops, flows or sprinkling are present in almost all of Nikola Velicki’s works. Even a cursory glance towards the television screen during a short episode of Peppa Pig, makes us realise that jumping on muddy pools is Peppa’s most beloved activity and the most joyful moment, although her younger brother George reacts to unpleasant situations with large, unrestrainable tears. Intuitively and by appropriating the cartoon protagonist, Velicki transposes his experience of these expressions not only visually, by painting the linear drops of rain or the jet of water from the shower, but also allowing his paint to spill and glorify the content of the painting with subsequent sprinkling. Rain, as an important element of the final series of pictures has been visually developed in broken lines that rhythmically interchange, one after another. From the graphically reduced drawing of Peppa Pig, Velicki’s works become visually more condensed, more complex and the movement is gestural and more expressive. It can be discerned that the change of technique and the transformation of the main protagonist evolve simultaneously, as complementary and constitutive. Each new accidental error in the creative process becomes extremely relevant for the artist’s further determination and further experimenting.

Owing to such a contemplative development Velicki continued his exercises on the canvas. The artist will show to the public in Kragujevac for the first time his pictures painted on canvas (Flea-market in Pančevo. Sunday, Santa Claus and second-hand toys)which will also be a significant step forward in his art. The absence of colour, flatness, his gestures and expressiveness remain the basic characteristics of Velicki’s creative activity in the field of painting. With his painting on canvas the artist visually condenses the scene, desiring to achieve free and quicker gestures. Starting from a simple two-dimensional basis he spontaneously builds a relief structure with new layers of colour and this, in its own right suggests linear effects of a graphic print. Painting primarily in acrylic paints, Velicki strengthens the “energy” of the picture by intensive and shiny paint for the metal. The sharpness of the matter required by such a support, contrasted by the white colour of paper, endows the picture with dynamism and intensity. Spontaneous leakages remain in the picture and inspire the artist for further experiments and a more complex procedures. Therefore, he continues with his renewed examination of the possibilities of a picture, first of all of its essential elements – the full-stop and the line.

The creative process of Nikola Velicki evolves in playing where joy is the basic driving motif and the main, but not the only goal. The artist is a homo ludensand understands playing as an important element of art and life: play is not only the prerogative of childhood because “a man who plays understands himself and others who play with him in a mutual realisation of the action of playing (…) the man who plays is interested in reflective self-understanding, in conceptual analysis of his winged, joyfully intoned realisation.”[2]By watching his children and imitating their “methods” of entertainment, Velicki continues the search for his own visual art expression, He experiments and discovers, understanding his own style. The final version of that is “a foolishness” as the artists says and the observer is invited to enter it not only owing to the monumental dimensions of the paper/canvas, but also owing to the provocative and humorous selection of the characters appropriated from the children’s world.

Humour, as an unavoidable element of such playing comes from life itself. The titles of the Velicki’s pictures fully eradicate the difference between lives of the cartoon characters and our everyday reality, just like an authentic synchronisation of a film adapted to local specific characteristics of our society. So, a shipyard becomes a junk yard (Junk yard for the Wagens and Pizzeria), Peppa’s market place is located in Pančevo (At the Flea-market in Pančevo. Sunday) and the observer as the fifth family member is waiting to enter the toilet in the morning (WC Occupied). This proves in a humorous way the closeness between us and those protagonists; the awareness of the common denominators of our mutual reality is simple, usual and seemingly banal connection between our lives. When the observer “enters” the canvas he/she continues to play the game the artist had begun, just as children do when watching Peppa Pig or any other cartoon; if he/she is sufficiently open, they enjoy the game and pose no questions regarding suggestive additions or interpretations. In the end, the observer comes out cheerful, certainly smiling, frequently confused, but relieved, at least for the moment.