Nikola Ukic. About the Senses of Possibilities: Cat. MMSU Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka

by Thorsten Schneider, Vladimir Vidar, Nikola Ukic, Rolf Hengesbach, Sabina Salamon

Overview

Nikola Ukic’ s artistic practice explores growth and decay, serving as a metaphor for the ecology of capitalism – though the artist himself does not explicitly draw this connection, as many critics have noted. His work engages with fundamental questions of artistic creation, drawing on the progressive traditions of the 1960s, such as Readymade and Minimalism, which radically distanced sculpture from representational and monumental concepts. Ukic critically reinterprets sculptural strategies, addressing the crisis of coherent bodily experiences and the relationship between authenticity and fiction. Works like his polyurethane cubes, » They breathe out as they rise« , exemplify this approach. Mixed with varying doses of color pigments, the cubes reach their maximum volume upon filling their molds, then gradually deflate at their own pace. Their creation is subject to perpetual transformation, rendering them as mobile and fragile as the human body. Yet there is no linear aging process – a shrunken cube is no less significant than a new, smooth one. It is no coincidence that Ukic’ s exhibitions are often compared to Zen gardens, as they articulate a dialogue between nature and human labor – not as dissonant but as a new form of growth and being, resembling an ecology that examines the boundaries between nature and culture, the living and the dead, growth and permanence. Ukic’ s ecology stems from his reflection on form. He insists on its irreducibility and our capacity to endure it. In this sense, his practice tests the limits of possibility, placing elements side by side without neutralizing them. He is fascinated by the idea of how bodily masses can imprint themselves onto a surface without resorting to mimetic realism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783864424687
Publisher:	Snoeck Publishing Company
Publication date:	05/01/2026
Pages:	148
Product dimensions:	9.25(w) x 11.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Thorsten Schneider is an art historian and critic. Since 2019, he has been a researcher at Leuphana University Lü neburg’ s interdisciplinary graduate program Cultures of Critique, working on a dissertation about ideology critique in German-speaking art history around 1968 and its relevance for contemporary art criticism.

Vladimir Vidar studied Philosophy and Journalism at Universita in Ljubljana. He worked at the City Museum of Ljubljana (2007– 2010) and as assistant to the artistic director of Š kuc Gallery (2010– 2013). His curatorial projects include international exhibitions and research on institutional critique in Central and Southeast Europe. He co-curated » Children Want Communism« (Tel Aviv) and is preparing a project on 1990s Slovenian art with Tadej Pogacar. Since 2016, he has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana and became a curator there at the MG+MSUM in 2024.

Nikola Ukic (b. 1974 in Rijeka) studied Philosophy at the University of Rijeka (1993– 1994) and Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (1995– 1999) before joining Georg Herold’ s class at the Kunstakademie Dü sseldorf (2000– 2004). Between 2017 and 2024, he held teaching positions at the Kunstakademie Dü sseldorf and the University of Siegen before becoming Professor of Sculpture at the Technical University of Dortmund. Since 2000, he has received numerous awards and exhibited widely in Germany and former Yugoslavian countries, including a 2023 solo exhibition at MMSU – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka.

Rolf Hengesbach founded his gallery in Wuppertal in 1991. After relocating temporarily to Cologne, he moved the gallery to Berlin in 2009, where he organized solo and group exhibitions in a renovated industrial hall until 2013. Since 2014, the gallery has been based again in Wuppertal. With nearly three decades of experience, Hengesbach’ s artists are held in public and private collections and regularly participate in international exhibitions.

Sabina Salamon is a curator at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka. She studied Philosophy and Art History in Ljubljana and was a member of The Club of Young Artists of Rijeka in the 1990s. From 2002– 2005, she served as acting director of the Mediterranean Sculpture Symposium in Labin and later ran the City Gallery Labin’ s program (2006– 2010). Since 2010, she has curated the Photography and New Media collections at MMSU, focusing on interdisciplinary approaches and promoting Croatian artists internationally.