ARTIST STATEMENT
EXHIBITION HISTORY
GALLERIES
MY FAVORITES


Artist Statement -



The form as a dwelling of human spirit. Primary medium: soft pastels on paper. Figurative-abstract transactions made in very controlled manner. Colors are very personal, drawing is cleaned of all unfunctional details.

My first pastel series was born during last year of studying fine arts like the fastest way to catch the idea of form for latter printmaking. These were static human figures captured in circle form, representing complex emotions. I named that Series 'Mater Magna' because of the obvious archetypes this forms represented. With time they lost that symbolic meaning and eventually become just abstract body fragments, with my interest more focused on the correlation between shapes and colours.

With time that evolved in this last Series I named 'Joie de Vivre' or just 'Joy' (of Life). In the same technique and manner, these stylized figures are liberated of their symbolic meanings or complex psychological heritage. They now exist in the space of colors - they attend to just be in it and be it at the same time. Here all my previous endeavors evolved in unrecognizable, abstract forms expanding in space.

Finally, feeling of the human spirit being set free.

Secondary medium: acrylic painted reliefs in cardboard or wood.
Few different layers, with flat coloured surfaces contrasting textured one. Texture: acrylic modeling paste.

Artist Exhibitions





SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Joy Pastel Series, Po Bota Gallery, Split, Croatia, August 2002.

Mater Magna Pastel Series, Alfa Gallery, Split, Croatia, 1992.

Mater Magna Pastel Series, Art Gallery, Split, Croatia, 1992.

Mater Magna Printmaking Series, Art Guard - Croatian Arts Society, Protiron Gallery, Split, Croatia, 1992.

Mater Magna Pastel Series, Zvono Experimental Gallery, Sarajevo, Bosnia And Herzegovina, 1991.

Mater Magna Printmaking Series - Graduate’s Exhibition, Academy Of Fine Arts, Sarajevo, Bosnia And Herzegovina, 1991.


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Wish You Were Here 5, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, June 2006.

July Group Show, Skybox Gallery, New York, July 2003.

Suburban Art League's 45th Annual Open Juried Art Exhibition, New York, June 2003.

Spring Salon, Limner Gallery, New York, April 2003.

April Group Show, Skybox Gallery, New York, April 2003.

Just a Tease, Les Bohemes, Courious Art Collective, New York, March 2003.

AQA Crosses The Line, AQA Gallery And Art Center, New York, October 2002.

20AQA02.2, AQA Gallery And Art Center, New York, June 2002.

Maestral Summer Art Colony Exhibition, Museum Of Town Kastela, Kastel Novi, Croatia, 2000.

Maestral Winter Art Colony Exhibition, Multimedia Cultural Center, Split, Croatia, 1998.

Biennale Of Small Format, Croatian Art Society, Split, Croatia, 1997.

Art Situation In Split, Croatian Art Society, Split, Croatia, 1996.

Humanitarian Exhibition, Zvonimir Gallery, Solin, Croatia, 1996.

Association In The Box, Multimedia Cultural Center, Split, Croatia, 1995.

Humanitarian Exhibition Of Art Colony Slava Raskaj, Naval Academy Gallery, Split, Croatia, 1995.

X Biennale Of Croatian Printmaking, Croatian Art Society, Split, Croatia, 1994.

Biennale Of Small Format, Croatian Art Society, Split, Croatia, 1994

Artists From Split And Zadar, Croatian Art Society, Split, Croatia, 1993.

Humanitarian Exhibition For Invalids Of War, Multimedia Cultural Center, Split, Croatia, 1993.

Biennale Of Small Format, Croatian Art Society, Split, Croatia, 1993.

Friends Of Art School, Multimedia Cultural Center, Split, Croatia, 1993.

Art Situation In Split, Croatian Art Society, Split, Croatia, 1992.

Split, Experimental Gallery, Sarajevo, Bosnia And Herzegovina, 1991.

Project Phantom Of Freedom, Experimental Gallery, Sarajevo, Bosnia And Herzegovina, 1991.

About One Bosnian Horse, Experimental Gallery, Sarajevo, Bosnia And Herzegovina, 1991.

VIII Biennale Of Croatian Printmaking, Croatian Art Society, Split, Croatia, 1990.
...

Artist Publications



“ Sonja Svete is, as this exhibition is witnessing, a sophisticated and enlightened creator who has accepted and realized the values of the must – less is more.”

“We are talking about paintings of women nudes, better to say nameless torso’s and body fragments made in the manner of figurative-abstract transactions.
What plains attention in these works is sublimed in the fact that the drawing is cleaned of all unfunctional details, in a solution simplicity which attracts with the concise cleanness of bringing a historically well spread motive dawn to a personal, subjective sign. “

Slobodna Dalmacija (Free Dalmatia) Newspaper, Solo Exhibition Critic, Vinko Srhoj, Croatian Art Critic, 1992.


“The stylish evolution which obviously flows through these here exhibited works presents a paintress as an artist thinking in an artistic continuity. This artistic idea has head and tail, logic and necessary unpredictability.
At present in her artistic view all is concentrated, focused around the nude women body, but not as a goal but as an obligatory, all present mean.
She has reduced the nude to a form which as needed, artistic need, is all the more estranged from recognition.”

Solo Exhibition Catalogue Review, Andro Filipic, Croatian Art Critic, 1992.

...

Artist Collections



Numerous private, corporate, museum, gallery and government collections detailed information coming soon.

Artist Favorites