MISCHA JOVANOVIC

Mischa Jovanovic is an abstract painter whose work investigates space, structure and material tension through a visual language shaped by architecture, migration and displacement.

Born in socialist Yugoslavia and raised in Switzerland, Jovanovic developed an approach to painting in which movement, instability and the construction of form become central concerns. His early training as an architectural draughtsman continues to inform his practice, particularly his sensitivity to scale, proportion and spatial organisation.

In his large-scale paintings, architectural precision intersects with expressive, gestural mark-making. Surfaces are built through layers of paint, erosion and accumulation, allowing structure and spontaneity to coexist. Rather than resolving into fixed narratives, his compositions remain open and physically charged, emphasizing material presence and spatial tension.

A formative encounter with the New York art scene in the early 1990s introduced Jovanovic to the immediacy and physicality of Abstract Expressionism. His practice has been influenced by artists including Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still and Julian Schnabel. This legacy is not treated as a stylistic formula, but as a foundation for a contemporary exploration of abstraction.

Jovanovic has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Switzerland since 1996. His work positions abstraction as a spatial practice grounded in materiality while engaging with broader questions of place, perception, control and rupture.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My practice draws on the legacy of Abstract Expressionism, not as a historical style to be repeated, but as a language through which emotional and psychological experience can be transformed into abstraction.

The physical immediacy of painting has always been central to my work. Gesture, scale, rhythm and the material behaviour of paint allow me to build compositions that move between structure and spontaneity, control and release.

My first encounters with the New York art scene had a profound impact on my development. The intensity of artists such as Elaine de Kooning and Joan Mitchell showed me that painting could hold both force and sensitivity, structure and instability, within the same surface.

Having been born in former Yugoslavia and raised in Switzerland, I have always experienced identity through movement between cultures, languages and places. This sense of displacement and the search for belonging became embedded in my practice. Painting developed into both a refuge and a space of transformation, where memory, movement and inner states can be translated into visual form.

Today, I continue to push my work toward new forms of abstraction, allowing material, intuition and spatial tension to guide each composition.

EDUCATION

New York Academy of Art New York, USA

School of Visual Arts New York, USA

SKDZ, Schule für Kunst und Design Zürich Zurich, Switzerland

Architectural Draughtsman Training Switzerland

SELECTED CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Since 1996 Solo and group exhibitions across Switzerland

Early 1990s Formative engagement with the New York art scene and Abstract Expressionism

1990 Established his own studio in Switzerland

1980s Began painting during his teenage years while training as an architectural draughtsman

ARTISTIC PRACTICE

Jovanovic’s paintings investigate the relationship between structure and gesture, control and release, order and rupture.

Working primarily on large-scale canvases, he builds surfaces through layering, erasure, accumulation and physical intervention. His architectural background informs the spatial logic of the work, while the immediacy of gestural painting introduces movement, instability and emotional tension.

Abstraction in Jovanovic’s practice functions neither as pure formalism nor as narrative. Instead, it becomes a space in which material, perception and lived experience intersect.

AVAILABLE WORKS →

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