Mirjana Avramović

Between the spring of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, Mirjana Avramovic has continued to develop the theme of gardens in a metaphorical sense. Instead of the pioneering and “path-seeking” paintings “Magic Garden” and “Magic Forest” from 2016, as well as the mystical gardens of a deeper, unconscious level ("The Invasion of Myths"), whose echoes can still be seen in the paintings “Alice in Wonderland”, "Between the Worlds" from 2017, one encounters a new “garden world” here.

In a sense, the painting “Awakening” represents the provisional end of a narrative the artist began to tell as recently as 2015: in a magical garden (with deliberate nods to Henri Rousseau but directly inspired by the garden of Richard Shapiro), a woman swims in a pool between Rodin´s “Thinker” and “Awakening”. Just a morning refreshment? Hardly. A mysterious immersion in a new world of ideas, embodied in Rodin´s sculptures? An initiation? Here anyhow the drama of remembering seems to end and, through the immersion into new water, a new, clearer view of things unfolds. This garden is now no longer a garden of memories, it is a garden of knowledge. And thereby also – of liberation.

The paintings presented here could be interpreted as a kind of synthesis of the artist´s painting up to 2019. They were the main paintings of the solo exhibition "Garden of Memories, Garden od Knowledge", which was exhibited in Winter 2019, between March 3rd and April 22nd at the Gallery of the Art Cycle Laatzen (Kunstkreis Laatzen) in the Region of Hanover.