Stefan Lukić

BIOGRAPHY

Stefan Lukić is a Serbian visual and performance artist whose vision is to record the universal state of being in transit, migration, and on the road. He is intrigued by the role of travelers and eyewitnesses and so he tries to represent them through his art. Roads, distances, and we as travelers become the connection between places, memories, ideas, people, life, love, human struggle and death. Paintings by Stefan Lukić almost always speak about the process of searching, and transition points – expressing the feelings of constant flux, a moving that never ends. He reminds us that it is all about the journey, and not about the destination. He emphasizes the act of wandering on the road, more so than the act of arriving at the final destination. In his paintings, you’ll find out more about HOW we are seeking, and less about WHAT we are seeking. Performances by Stefan Lukic, or how he calls them: drawing-events, are similar to his paintings. They are more raw, as raw as life itself, without any mediator, with all the situations we can’t expect or predict. . Stefan Lukić completed his Master studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, in 2022. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 2018. He finished his third year of studies in Paris at the Academy of Fine Arts (ENSBA) in 2017. He was resident in Cité internationale des arts, Pariz, Francuska, 2024; Gothenburg, Sweden, 2021 and Homesession Art Space, Barcelona, Spain, 2021; He finished Masterclass at the Royal Academy (Rijksakademie) Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2019; He participated in 13 th Performance festival in Gothembugr, Sweden.; He participated in 31 st Memorial of Nadežda Petrović 2022; He was a finalist of the Mangelos Award for Contemporary Art 2021; He won the award for painting at the Faculty of Applied Arts in 2016. He has had several solo exhibitions, of which we point out: “24/7” Gothenburg, Sweden, 2021; “Tram Called Desire - The First Round in Barcelona” Barcelona, Spain, 2021; ,,Second Round in Monte Carlo ”Monte Carlo, Monaco, 2021; “Size does (not) matter”; Catch 22, Belgrade, Serbia, 2021; “As Far, as my legs will carry me”; Dobrinjska 5, Belgrade, Serbia, 2020; Interspace, U10 Art Space, Belgrade, Serbia 2018; “YUGOnostalgia” at the National Theater in Uzice city, 2017; “Face and reverse” at the National Museum in Kragujevac city, Serbia, 2016. He has exhibited in group exhibition in Paris, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and Kragujevac cities. He currently lives and works in Paris, France.

A Walk Through the City (2016)

Understanding the city as a landscape of memory, it becomes a multi-layered entity that interweaves history, politics, and personal narratives. Walking through a city reveals its stories and shapes how we perceive its layers. On March 28, 1999, during the NATO bombing of Serbia, Serbian officials reassured citizens by claiming the presence of the Russian S-300 missile system hidden in the silos of Vojvodina. On the 17th anniversary of this event, an anti-NATO protest in Belgrade inspired Stefan Lukić to undertake a performative walk through the city. He visited places tied to the national memory of these events while carrying a hand- drawn picture of the modernized Russian S-400 missile system. Each stop was documented in a photo, which he later posted on Facebook with the slogan, “Stefan Lukić feels safe!” During his walk, the artist encountered various reactions from passers-by, ranging from supportive greetings to sharp criticism. One moment remains vivid: a baker rushing out of his shop, shouting, “Bring it here, bring it here!” The placement of the drawings became an exploration of the intersection between public memory and individual reflection. This interaction highlighted the tension between memory, identity, and public space. Through his walk, Lukić navigated the mental architecture of social and individual memory, confronting collective trauma while sensing the resilience embedded in these places. By juxtaposing personal imagery with historically charged sites, he invited viewers to reconsider their relationship with the city and its multi-layered identity.

As Far Away as My Feet Will Carry Me (2020–2021)

Shortly after the first wave of COVID-19, Stefan Lukić decided to perform a 10-day running series that began in his studio and led to the ten cemeteries of Belgrade. With this deeply personal project, Lukić wanted to translate the tension of this time’s confinement into movement and creation, combining physical endurance, performance art, and urban exploration. The runs became a way of symbolically liberating himself, retracing his steps, and drawing lines—literally and metaphorically—connecting his past, present, and visions of the future. At the end of each route, the artist made a symbolic turn—a deliberate movement away from the threshold of a cemetery and a sign of refusal to bow to stagnation or finality—opting instead for renewal and dynamic forward movement. In collaboration with a gallery, each run was live-streamed, attracting great media attention. The run itself was also documented as a GPS drawing, reflecting the artist's interest in rethinking concepts of tracing time and memory. This was further explored when friends and family selected memory triggers and placed them along the running route. During the runs, Lukić encountered these triggers, transforming each route into a personal dialogue with his own history, identity, and aspirations. One day before the series began, the artist announced the event on Instagram by sharing footage of himself running across hand-painted posters featuring paroles with comments on his work from various figures in the art scene. The performance culminated after the ten days in an exhibition that took place in a private apartment in the same building as his studio, where the paroles were presented alongside the GPS drawings and documentation.

Interspace (2017-2019)

Spaces of transit are usually understood as temporary, fleeting, and seemingly insignificant. However, as an artist who frequently moves between different cities and cultural contexts, Stefan Lukić repeatedly finds himself in such moments of transit, and increasingly comes to understand them as incredibly meaningful. In Interspace, the artist captures in carefully rendered paintings the emptiness and tension of spaces that are neither origin nor destination. The roads seem to stretch into infinity, interrupted only by faint horizons or abstracted landscapes, reminding the viewer of the universal human condition of constant movement through time, space, and experience. The muted tones and layered textures simultaneously emphasize the transience of the spaces in between, creating both a sense of continuity and separation. Devoid of human figures, the viewer is invited to immerse themselves in the work, feeling the weight of the journey without distraction. By depicting the road as an entity, rather than a means to an end, the artist explores themes of impermanence, instability, and the human experience of existing in between states. The focus is shifted entirely to the journey, questioning common assumptions, refusing to let the moment pass, and instead opening a dialogue about the metaphorical paths we all travel through life.

A Car as a Body of Nostalgia (2015-1017)

In A Car as a Body of Nostalgia, Stefan Lukić explores the car as a metaphor for the body that holds an identity. Much like humans, it has a physical presence that embodies time, purpose, and ultimately decay. In this series of paintings, the artist reflects on the metaphorical relationship between bodies and their experiences. The scrapped and abandoned cars become representations of nostalgia; their rusty shells, cracked windows and faded paint give an insight into a life that has been lived and stories that remain untold. By portraying these cars, Lukić transforms their material presence into symbols of decay and raises questions about the preservation of memory. The cars become monuments reminiscent of another time and representing resilience in their materiality. The brushstrokes become evidence of a journey. Each work thus serves to convey memory by examining the car as an object that contains both literal and symbolic elements, capturing the feeling of nostalgia. The viewer is invited to reflect on their own past and the vehicles that have both literally and figuratively carried them through their lives.

Journey to the End of the Night (2019–2021)

Inspired by traveling and moving between places, Stefan Lukić embarked on a personal exploration of light, movement, and time. Here, movement becomes an act of imagination, existing only in the swift brushstrokes and flowing colors of the paintings. Developed into a series, the works relate to one another like snapshots on a journey. The monochrome colors are reminiscent of documentary photography, while the comic-like image fragments suggest the continuity of a story. Through blurred lines and fogged images, the artist creates a disorientation for the viewer. Although the paintings seem to tell a story, there is neither a point of departure nor a destination. Instead, the focus lies on the movement itself, the in- between, the transit, and the passage of time. In his attempt to catch a glimpse of a second, Lukić opens up the possibility of seeing the fragility of each moment, just before it collapses.

Size Does (Not) Matter! (2021)

YUGOnostalgia (2015-2017)

A car is not just a means of transportation but is deeply charged with codes of structures within society. The car “Yugo” (or Jugo) pictured here was built from 1981 until 2008 and used to be a status symbol in the former Yugoslavia as well as a sign of economic success, sold far beyond its Eastern European origins. Today, the car has passed its prime and is often abandoned and left behind, like a shell from another life. In the series YUGOnostalgia, Stefan Lukić portrays these abandoned cars in desolate, dreamlike landscapes. In doing so, he offers a melancholic perspective on a collective memory of a certain time and raises questions about cultural identity. The car is transformed from its destiny to a metaphor of the isolation and alienation of contemporary life. With each painting, the artist uncovers a hidden story embedded in the objects, revealing nostalgia that is reflected in thoughts of identity and belonging. By incorporating the Yugo into his artistic process, Lukić creates a narrative in which the desolation becomes art and memory can be reinvented.

On Your side

In Mitrovica, a bridge marks the division between the Serbian and Albanian people. While this division is not officially acknowledged as a border by Serbia, which does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state, it nonetheless exists as a site of tension and significance. Stefan Lukić sensed this tension when he made the bridge the focus of his artwork. In an artistic exploration, the artist wanted to investigate how one could intervene with such a charged space, which contains much more than just a rift through the land. Lukić therefore decided to run back and forth on the bridge, from one side to the other, while recording his steps in the form of a digital drawing. Within this drawing, the border would eventually disappear into the thick lines. Before the run, Lukić advertised the work with one of his parols placed in Kosovska Street in Belgrade, featuring the date of the performance and the sentence, “Stefan Lukić does not know the border”. During the event, Lukić was confronted with numerous restrictions and disturbances, ranging from a film ban to interference from Serbian, Albanian and Italian UN border guards as well as threats of arrest. It turned out that no one had run across this bridge for over twenty years.

The Start is the Finish - The Finish is the Start (22.09.2019)

The intersection of art and sport offers great potential to challenge social structures. In his participation in the Belgrade Ironman Triathlon, Stefan Lukić subverted conventional norms by using the finish line as his starting point, deconstructing conventional social patterns and rethinking issues such as motivation, memory, and social structures. Recognizing that this performance would be an extreme physical endeavor, Lukić committed to an intense training schedule that became a journey of self-motivation, goal-setting, and dedication. By reversing the order of the competition, the artist encountered an interplay between individual effort and structural frameworks, raising critical questions about how these dynamics shape power structures in social landscapes. In the process, seemingly fixed boundaries blurred, allowing the audience to imagine possibilities outside the conventional framework. Moreover, by retracing the steps of the structured triathlon, the artist uncovered traces of memory embedded in the present, revealing how past experiences shape current motivations. The performance was documented in a GPS drawing as well as photos and drawings by befriended artists. The GPS drawing transformed the event into a tangible, lasting piece of art, blurring the lines between ephemeral action and permanent creation.

I’m Going to Be Back (2017, January 5th)

After his acceptance to the renowned École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Stefan Lukić's excitement was quickly tempered by thoughts about the significance of his departure. In Serbia, leaving the country is often seen as a success—a path to a better future, usually without the longed-for return. The narrative of education as a stepping stone to emigration is therefore deeply ingrained, with many equating leaving the country with personal and professional validation. Confronted with the phenomenon of “brain drain,” in which educated individuals leave their home countries to pursue opportunities abroad, the artist developed a statement that soon became the centerpiece of his first solo exhibition: “I am going so I can come back.” Originally planned as a project to finance his studies, the exhibition soon took on a much deeper meaning and attracted a great deal of attention. It was no longer just about him but about all those who struggle with the tension between staying and leaving. After all, the act of leaving is often accompanied by the promise of return; yet the phrase “I am going so I can come back” remains inherently ambiguous. The statement became a living artwork. Lukić created a hand-painted billboard that read, “Stefan Lukić is going to Paris: I am going so I can come back! Let’s encourage the locals, and in the end, long live art!” He spread this campaign all the way from Belgrade to Užice, where the exhibition took place. The sign became a mantra, symbolizing both a promise and a question—a way of exploring what it means to leave, to return, and to belong.

EXHIBITIONS

"Crta," Cultural Center Studentski Grad

"24/7," Gothenburg, Sweden

"The Last Lap in Monza," Creative Studio Opal, Milan, Italy

"Size (Doesn’t) Matter," alternative space Kvaka 22, Belgrade

"Interspace," Art Space U10, Belgrade

"YUGOnostalgia," National Theatre in Užice

"A Streetcar Named Desire – First Lap: Front and Back," National Museum in Kragujevac

"The Second Lap in Monte Carlo," at the Maison Lino butcher's slaughterhouse, Monte Carlo, Monaco

STEFAN LUKIĆ

The recipient of the "Golden Palette" Award for the best work in painting and drawing in the year-round program of ULUS group exhibitions in 2023.