About David Delibašić – David Delibašić

David Delibašić was born in Nikšić, Montenegro in 1986. He completed his undergraduate and master’s studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Italy.

About his work:

“The distorted phantasmagoria, particularly noticeable in the drawings, looks like it has emerged directly from the artist’s subconscious. He uncompromisingly allows it to “create” these beings, whose existence is uncertain, but also impossible to deny; hence, the displayed trauma, fear and alienation belong to the observer as much as the artist. The world which is being built and un-built in these artworks by tackling disfigurement, shows adjusted mental images, reduced to a feeling of anxiety and pain. All of the figures in the artworks merge organically with the background, which becomes a space of transcendence: on the drawings with charcoal shading, which creates a feeling of simultaneous transparency and illusoriness.

Portrait and figure are the origination of Delibašić’s iconography. At first sight, these traditional art motifs are never treated in a formal or banal way; on the contrary, even though they are done with an outstanding technical precision, their primary feature is the disturbingly complex emotional facet. The deformations of portraits and figures are not displayed as drama, but as a diagnostic result of reality. This objectivity is not at all coincidental; the mise-en-scene and the atmosphere of these artworks can rely on the psychoanalytic theory (especially on the dream theory, some of the paintings look like frames from a nightmare) or on postmodernism (pop culture references, Tippi Hedren and Alfred Hitchcock appear unexpectedly in one of the artworks); however, the artist renounces any kind of direct connection with schools of thought and he represents existential problems and dilemmas solely with painting methods.”

Milena Eraković

Solo exhibitions:

1996, gallery of YNA center, Nikšić (Montenegro)

2007, gallery “Art Forum”, Nikšić (Montenegroa)

2008, gallery “Marko. K. Gregović”, Petrovac (Montenegro)

2010, gallery “Art Forum”, Nikšić (Montenegro)

2011, gallery “Art”, Podgorica (Montenegro)

2017, gallery “Marko. K. Gregović”, Petrovac (Montenegro)

2025, “Kultivator”, Nikšić (Montenegro)

Collective exhibitions:

2008, “Spazio Oxigene”, Rome (Italy)

2009, „6. International biennale of graphics“, museum “Renatico Martini”, Monsumanno Terme (Italy)

2009, Fiera Artist, Istanbul (Turkey)

2010, “Spirit of Nikšić”, Fortress Bedem, Nikšić (Montenegro)

2010, “Young artists”, gallery “Art Forum”, Nikšić (Montenegro)

2011, ArtExpo, Arezzo (Italy)

2011, Documenta, National festival of documentary film, Latina, Rome (Italy)

2011, Art Show “MIMESI”, Feudi di San Marzano, Taranto (Italy)

2012, DE PICTURA, Temple University Rome, Rome (Italy)

2015, KC Punkt, YNA center, Nikšić (Montenegro)

2015, gallery “Marko. K. Gregović”, „Woman nudes and portraits“, Petrovac (Montenegro)

2015, ARTCONNECT, gallery Nikola I, Nikšić (Montenegro)

2016, Bedem Fest 7, Nikšić (Montenegro)

2017, “Between memory and resistance – Niksic’s antifascist map”, PI “Museums and galleries Nikšić”, (Montenegro)

2017, “2D – Delibašić David & Delibašić Zdravko Beli”, PI “Museums and galleries Nikšić”, (Montenegro)

2018, “Christmas Exhibition”, PI “Museums and galleries Niksic”, (Montenegro)

2021, ULUCG Young artists, Rijeka, Pula, Grožnjan (Croatia)

2021, “What our struggle has given us”, gallery “Miodrag Dado Đurić”, Cetinje (Montenegro)

2021, “Meta”, gallery “Josip Bepo Benković”, Herceg Novi (Montenegro)

2021, “Ode to Life”, international exhibition, Biljarda, Cetinje (Montenegro)

2022, The 1st international Triennial of portrait, Knin (Croatia)

2026, Selector of the Herceg Novi Winter Art Salon

Awards:

2011, First prize for poster design, Documenta, National festival of documentary film, Latina, Rome (Italy)

2020, First prize, Herceg Novi Winter Salon (Montenegro)

2022, Grand Prix, The 1st international Triennial of portrait, Knin (Croatia)