"RELATED"
art by
Dejan Pejovic and Lanna Pejovic
An antidote to all the hoopla, news cycles, and churning of anxiety can be found in a quiet place, at a show of artworks by brother and sister, Dejan Pejovic and Lanna Pejovic, now on view at the Geisel Gallery in the Bausch & Lomb Building in downtown Rochester, New York. I've known them both for a few years, and I am always engaged when I see their shows because they forge ahead on their own path, which is one of serious contemplation and a relationship with developments in the history of art that is not afraid to look back while moving forward.
Dejan Pejovic " Pneuma "- 2013
The title of the show is "RELATED" and that can be because they are, and because their art is like a dialog about structure, texture, and color. I think that is the first thing that you can apprehend - that structure here seems to be paramount - the form that these works take, whether it is in terra cotta as are all of Dejan's works in this show or painting - as all of Lanna's - the form reigns supreme. The textures of terra cotta in Dejan's sculpture seems to be mostly uniform, as smooth as an orange peel, while the textures of Lanna's paintings are more ambiguous - rougher here; more translucent there.
Lanna Pejovic at The Geisel Gallery
Reverence may be a word that comes to my mind, and in that way Lanna's paintings act in a contemplative fashion like a quiet walk in the woods, maybe in nearby Mendon Ponds Park - but the paintings are not too specific. In fact, Lanna's painting has a quality somewhat like Mondrian - when he was shifting away from representational art and heading into abstraction.
Dejan Pejovic "Window", 2013, terra cotta
at
Geisel Gallery
Dejan's art is much more architectural and I would love to see some of these pieces built at a much grander scale. At the Geisel Gallery show ( which runs through March 26th, 2015 ) finger-like forms look like hands in prayer, and at the same time could be ribs or sea-forms found in tropical waters. Both Lanna and Dejan have been making art in this area for many years and their sense of purpose shows.
Lanna Pejovic, 2014
Art like Dejan's "Pneuma" and "Window" are thought provoking and all of his sculptural objects are beautifully made and very attractive. Lanna's "Wooded Path" paintings draw the viewer closer, and frequently set up a dichotomy - a light and dark panel together, a warm and cool panel, and they have some significance. Lanna says, " I like using the landscape and turning it into a thing of the mind". She plays with notions of past and future, night and day, life and death, all subjects that resonate with artists of the caliber of Dejan and Lanna Pejovic.
