Zoran Poposki

Zoran Poposki (b.1974) is an accomplished abstract expressionist painter and graphic artist from Macedonia.

So far he's had 5 solo exhibitions.

Poposki's abstract paintings are present in private collections abroad, along the works of such masters as Miro, Appel and Jorn.

In conceptual terms, Zoran Poposki’s artistic production to date consists of three groups of paintings which are somewhat similar, but also very different in their treatment of the canvas, as well as the period when they were created. The paintings display references to modernist painterly solutions, exclusively abstract ones, such as abstract expressionism, action painting, color-field painting, post-painterly abstraction, etc. However, Zoran Poposki’s painting is not a conscious attempt at implementing the achievements of these art directions; rather, it is a reflection of his perception of space and color. The unifying aspect of his paintings, formally speaking, is the use of primary colors and expressive gestures, the notion of the painting as a vestige of spiritual and psychological experiences, the absence of identifiable mimetic motifs, and the return to painting through the spiritual framework of (neo) existentialism.

In the cycle consisting of works created during 2001-2002, we encounter paintings of dominating dimensions. The whole field of the painting is filled with painterly material and radiates inner explosive energy. The size of the canvas offers an opportunity for expression as well as painterly experiments in the manner of Jackson Pollock’s dripping paintings. This method of painting underscores the existential and formal act of creation of the work, that is the realization of the painting is performance-like and ritualistic in character. Tactile sensations are inevitable in such a process of creation consisting of total immersion in the painting by means of brushes, palette knives, hands, etc. Expressiveness, interpreted as an expression of inner spiritual and psychological conditions, and the all-over effect are traces of the artistic gesture. Colors intertwine in a rich fabric of emulsion, making it impossible to follow one of them through. The result is a composition of interlaced “lines” and traces potentially endlessly spreading in all directions of the surface of the canvas.

The second cycle (2001-2004) marks a move towards a “liberation” of the surface of the canvas. There’s a discrete "transition to white", in the direction of lyrical abstraction. Color is still the basic means of expression with its own pictorial and semiotic autonomy; it is an aspect of the surface and the spread over the surface by means of which the autonomous pictorial effect is carried out. Through the painting, which remains a two-dimensional flat surface on which free abstract gestural traces of color are being composed, Zoran Poposki accomplishes a purely pictorial, aesthetic expression.

The latest works (made in 2003-2004) are a form of refined lyricism. There’s a noticeable development in the direction of a complete devotion to the pictoriality of empty space. There is a suggestion of color-field painting where the painting’s surface is monochrome (white) and stands as a foundation for chromatic and gestural variations, with the base itself becoming a central theme of the painting. There’s an emphasis on superficiality, with the pictorial structures "emerging" from the base, “penetrating" the base, optically “hovering over” the base or partially “covering” it.

Maja Cankulovska, Museum of Contemporary Art - Skopje