NMG@PRAKTIKA
LAV PARIPOVIĆ: Draft Paintings
20 – 27 / 03 / 2025
OPENING: Thursday, March 20th at 20:00
The exhibition is open to visitors from Monday to Friday during the gallery’s working hours from 17:00 to 20:00
Club Kocka Gallery, Youth Center Split, Slobode ul 28
ABOUT THE WORK
In the works of Lav Paripović, a painting is not a static object but a process in constant transformation. The stop-motion video format, which he uses as an extension of the painting medium, does not depict a finished scene but a sequence—traces that emerge, disappear, and reappear. The painterly gesture here does not seek a conclusion; it circulates, changes, and transforms, while the painting remains open—a space of continuous potential. Paripović previously used the term “painterly loop”, but his current work shifts the focus toward a more complex phenomenon—the image as a dynamic entity in a continuous cycle of interventions. His “draft paintings” are not merely sketches but layered records of the process. The traces of application, erasure, covering, and uncovering of paint are not incidental—they become the very structure of the painting, its rhythm.
From a technical perspective, the work consists of a series of stop-motion videos documenting sequences of painterly interventions on a single surface. The image appears and disappears within the frames—paint is applied, erased, and re-covered, with each frame serving as a record of a moment in the process. The video works are projected onto the gallery wall, while physical elements—wall paintings—are simultaneously present in the space, forming an ambient installation. The exhibition setup establishes a dialogue between the image in time (video) and the image in space (material traces), wherein the gallery space functions as an extension of the work rather than merely its site of presentation.
Through the repetition of painterly actions, Paripović subtly reveals the inherent logic of what is often perceived as an intuitive act. Each gesture carries weight but also opens space for the upcoming gesture. In this uninterrupted chain of interventions, the painting does not reach closure—it persists, remaining in transition. At the core of the work is not form but processuality. The video works document precisely what is usually erased—the trace of movement, repetition, and disappearance. Concepts of color, surface, line, and tonal relationships do not appear here as fixed elements but as variables within a system that is constantly being re-examined. Through iterative procedures, the painting does not become a representation but instead a trace of an ongoing process.
In the works CMYK, Grey Scale, and Op Lines, the artist further explores how different chromatic and graphic systems alter the perception of the image. The stop-motion technique allows the viewer insight into the painting’s structure—layers, erasures, coverings—gestures that would otherwise remain erased or invisible now become the primary carriers of meaning. The painting is no longer defined by what it depicts but by what it reveals about its own making. The Draft Paintings exhibition also reflects on space (the gallery) —not treating it as a neutral frame but as an active participant. Walls, projections, light reflections, and the physicality of paint create a new visual dynamic in which the image responds to the space, and the space to the image. The viewer is no longer a passive observer but a participant in the process, immersed in an ambient network of an image in formation.
In Paripović’s conception, the painting does not seek a conclusion. On the contrary, it eludes us. When can a painting be considered finished? Is it even possible to speak of a painting’s completion if it inherently carries the possibility of being different? Perhaps each frame is merely a transitional point, and each gesture is the beginning of something new. This exhibition does not offer definitive answers but opens a space where painting is not regarded as a finished product but as a process that, each time anew, unfolds in relation to time, space, and perception.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lav Paripović (b. 1989) is a visual artist living and working in Zagreb. He graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2015 with cum laude honors. He received the HDLU Young Artist Award (2016) and the Kontrapunkt Award Vladimir Dodig Trokut – Iva Vraneković (2024). His work encompasses painting, video, and spatial interventions. He has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including: CMYK, Galerija Flora, Dubrovnik (2022); Totalka, Galerija SC, Zagreb (2018); No Comment, Diocletian’s Cellars, Split (2018); Youth Salon “Pao sat u bunar”, HDLU, Zagreb (2024); OSTRALE Biennale, Dresden (2021); DRAW – International Exhibition of Contemporary Drawing, MKC Split (2022); 4th and 3rd Painting Biennale, HDLU, Zagreb (2017, 2015). In addition to his gallery work, he is active in street art, with murals and public space interventions created as part of festivals and independent cultural programs.
IMPRESSUM
CURATOR / Jelena Šimundić Bendić
NMG CURATORIAL TEAM / Natasha Kadin, Vedran Perkov, Jelena Šimundić Bendić
TRANSLATION / Katarina Duplančić Dugopoljac
DOCUMENTATION / Glorija Lizde
SETUP / Lav Paripović, Jelena Šimundić Bendić
DONORS / Ministarstvo kulture i medija RH, Grad Split
MAVENA SUPPORTED BY / Zaklada Kultura nova
SPECIAL MENTION / KUM, MKC, PDM, Marijana Gradečak, Klara Šoštarić
DESIGN / Nikola Križanac
PRINT / Kopiring