Starburst
The solo exhibition “Starburst” by Pavle Pavlović at the Ravnikar Gallery in Ljubljana.
The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Trotoar.
Curated by Martina Marić Rodrigues
The Starburst painting series integrates fragments of art history, avant-garde experiments, and contemporary digital excess into new visual spaces. Drawing from late Gothic and early Renaissance artists like Duccio, Dürer, and Cranach the Elder—alongside early 20th-century collage experiments and the modernist montage techniques of Yugoslav Black Wave cinema—Pavle Pavlović dismantles these references, uprooting them from their traditional contexts. What emerges through his painterly process are layered, uncharacteristic constructions—at times illogical and disjointed, yet always rich in associations.
The paintings don’t follow a single perspective or narrative—think of them as a collection of dioramas, blending theatre sets, ancient shadow play, and digital interfaces. Pavlović structures his paintings like dispersed stage sets or windows into peculiarly curated worlds, with figures and various discarded visuals suspended in time and action, teetering on the edge of reason. His hyperactive universe is populated by a variety of internet debris, where memes, GIFs and emojis morph into sacred icons, glitched Pinky the Cat stretches amid kitschy ornaments, and gummies, saints, and warriors glow with an eerie, relic-like aura. It’s like a visual jigsaw puzzle that doesn’t quite fit. Absurdity is key here—the point is not to make everything fit neatly together, but to create an intentional tension. Elements like frames from Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain fuse with repetitive linear woodcuts, with the dominant central element of the starburst. Originally used as a design tool to grab attention, the starburst evolves into a visual accelerator, acting as a focal point that propels the motives of eccentric (headless) humanity.
Starburst explores how we experience images today. Just as media flow seamlessly across platforms and contemporary culture elevates the fleeting and trivial, Pavlović’s imagery blends the curated with the chaotic, questioning what is authentic, valuable, and real. In a time of visual hypertrophy, where images are consumed at unprecedented speed, the Starburst series asks how a painting can function as an object, space, and sign all at once, pulling together time, styles, and symbols in fresh ways.
Martina Marić Rodrigues