DAMIR SOBOTA Monochromes (Light Reliefs)

Damir Sobota is presenting a series of works that may seem quite simple at first glance. Seven square formats, each measuring 70 × 70 cm, each titled only by the color it carries: Red, Green, Blue, Grey, Yellow... However, the apparent simplicity soon proves to be both an optical and a mental trap. What he presents are neither images in the classical sense, nor objects that can be grasped in a single glance. They are works that come to life only in encounter with the viewer: through movement, shifting viewpoints, and light sliding across their surfaces, returning to the eye as an ever-chaning event.
Monochromes (Light Reliefs) continue the artist's long-standing exploration of the relationship between matter and light, the visible and the conceptual, between what is and what is only coming into being.
The process of making the works is best described by the artist himself. Each work is made of a thousand or more fragments of the same paper, factory-cut to identical dimensions. In the very act of cutting, a crucial, almost imperceptible shift occurs: the blade bends the edge of the paper by a few micrometers, leaving a trace that becomes visible only in encounter with light. Since the paper has four possible sides, that is, four edges, each fragment reflects light differently, even though they are made of the same material and color. In this way, four tones of a single color are created, not as the result of pigment mixing, but as an effect of a physical process and the spatial orientation of the material.
Sobota composes these fragments with an almost ascetic discipline. Each tone, each side of the paper, occupies an equal part of the surface. The surface is evenly structured, but never static –it is quite the opposite. In this strict composition, there is a continuous vibration. As the viewer moves, as the angle of vision or the light source shifts, the color changes, flickers, darkens, and brightens.
Sobota uses a single color to open up a space of its inner complexity. The color becomes the field of research, a frequency where matter and light come together. In one moment, as the artist himself puts it, the matter of the paper becomes the matter of light. This is not a metaphor, but a literal description of what is happening before our eyes. The work's surface does not reflect light as a mirror, nor does it absorb it like a dark plane. Instead, it refracts, disperses, and modulates it. Each paper fragment functions as a small optical unit, capturing light and returning it to space in a distinct way.
If we were to compare these works to other artistic forms, we might say that Sobota comes close to music. In his own words, to put it metaphorically, I would compare more complex, motif-filled works to a song or a musical composition; yet, because I prefer minimalism, this work can be perceived as a tone, a frequency.
The minimalism in these works is neither an aesthetic pose nor a formal reduction for its own sake. It is necessary in order to allow what is essential: the experience of perception. The monochromes are open fields where the act of viewing is inscribed. In this sense, each encounter with the work is different. The color we see today is not the same as the one we will see tomorrow, because the light will not be the same, the angle will not be the same, nor our state of consciousness.

 

Helena Puhara

Damir Sobota (1988, Zagreb)

Graduated in 2013 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Department of Printmaking. His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including: the 47th Art Salon, Sublations, Montenegro (2025); the 29th Slavonian Biennale, Institute of the Invisible (2024); Bačva Gallery, North East South West North (2024); Lukowa Art Collection, Lucerne, Switzerland (2023); Studio Tommaseo, Trieste Contemporanea, Trieste (2022); Radoslav Putar Award, Salon Galić, Split (2020); Palindrom, Lauba/U10, Zagreb/Belgrade (2020/2021); Known Unknowns, Westpol A.I.R. Space, Leipzig (2019); the 11th HT Award, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2018); and several editions of the Biennial of Painting. Participated in artist residency programs in Germany and the United States, including Residency Unlimited, New York (2021) and Halle 14 / Hafenkombinat, Leipzig (2017/2018). Received several awards and is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists (HDLU) and the Croatian Freelance Artists' Association (HZSU). Lives and works in Zagreb.

contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.