The Punctum Void: A Miha Sarani Retrospective

My work explores, and responds to the elements of everyday life - particularly by framing our collective existence, individual experiences, voyeuristic responses, and the idea of duality. I find playing with the formal elements helps me better visually represent these objectives. While the intention is to bring about an exploration of a dialogue with the past, I commonly engage in current issues; addressing cyclical occurrences throughout history, but with contemporary challenges.

My art practice aims to create a juxtaposition of conceptual art and aesthetic value; thus visually combining what I believe to be the essence of art making as a philosophical pursuit. For this reason, reading of my work often includes both arbitrary and conventional signs, personal assumptions mixed with stylistic representation of post-modern content. My theoretical framing is to move my work beyond the hyped contemporary referent and trendy aesthetic which pay less attention to the content and more to approximation.

My practice is also profoundly informed by my studies as an art historian, so I look to the old masters as well as new for inspiration. Still, I find myself most often returning to the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Marcel Duchamp, Martin Kippenberger, Anselm Kiefer, Philip Guston and Neo Rauch.

Modern viewers, I believe, have become accustomed to having art dissected and served to them - which tends to devalue the work and the process. Although I enjoy contemporary art and admire many of its practitioners, I strive to create something with a deeper significance; a bridge between the ancient rituals and modern audience.