In his studies of the unredeemed promises of the past and what they offer for our present, David Maljkovic (*1973) looks to his own history growing up under Tito’s rule in the former Yugoslavia to reflect upon the legacy of the international avant-garde and the possibilities of rebuilding a future. Maljkovic works within the tradition of collage, both as a formal principle and conceptual device. The jarring energy of the modernist collage—and its counterpart, the archive—allows the artist to use formal strategies such as juxtaposition and displacement to envision new political and conceptual possibilities.

© David Maljković
David Maljković
In the Pictorial Code
Quetzal Art Center, Portugal
Through August 31, 2023
Quetzal Art Center proudly presents a solo exhibition by David Maljković titled In the Pictorial Code. At the core of Maljković’s practice is a regimented exploration of formalist concerns. Whilst narrative is the driving element at the origin of a project, the artist’s varied means of visual implementation consistently and profoundly modifies and compromises its supremacy, whether that is through photography, video, sculpture, installation, collage or painting. In the Pictorial Code presents recent works that play with the idea of painting as a guardian of time and the painter’s position as its witness. The exhibition establishes a marking system that embodies the image’s position within the author’s practice, and also tracks its displacement into other media.
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