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The “Lorenzo il Magnifico” Special Award from the President of the Florence Biennale was bestowed to Mice Jankulovski “for his lifetime achievements in, and commitment to the visual arts. Through masterly executed drawings and paintings with geometrical abstraction of forms and play on colour, he has expressed his vision of the world as pervaded with cosmic energy, which appears to animate his two-dimensional artworks showing a unique aura”.

Born in Silvovo, Ohrid, and based in Skopje, Mice Jankulovski is a distinguished artist and architect who has explored different disciplines since his early youth – from drawing to painting using different materials and techniques, from satirical painting on glass to palindrome, from cartoon drawing to animation. He is credited for being a pioneer of Minimalism in Macedonia at a time in which artists and intellectuals faced difficulties in innovating the figurative traditions of the cultural areas that were part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Besides, he has contributed to the development of visual arts in the world through his commitment as a founder of the Osten Museum of Drawing, President of the Osten Biennial of Drawing, and President of the Association of Cartoonists of Macedonia.

Jankulovski’s creative work spanning different media reflects his view of the world as an ever changing reality in which a multitude of things moving through time and space overlap on a plane that extends infinitely far.

Through contemplation, meditation, and creativity, he thus thrives in perceiving and giving shape to a universal order encompassing constant transformation.

Lying behind such an ideal representation of the life of forms through colour and texture, is the artist’s observation of the environment as a key to interpretative philosophy: each piece of work has its own story and opens way to a multitude of new dimensions.

Throughout his fifty-year career as a professional artist, Mice Jankulovski has had over forty solo exhibitions in prestigious venues in his native country and on the international scene as well. For instance, at the Yugoslav Cultural Center in Paris (France), the Devlet Resim Heykel Muzesi in Ankara (Turkey), the Archivi della Misericordia and Ca’ Zanardi in Venice (Italy), the Lola Nikolaou Gallery in Thessaloniki (Greece), and the City Gallery in Varna (Bulgaria), only to mention a few.

Amongst his many awards and recognitions, mention should be made of the Artist of the World Award received from the Larnaca Biennial in Cyprus (2018), the Gran Prix earned at the 19th International Print Biennial in Varna, Bulgaria (2017), where he also won the prize for Best Exhibition of the Year (2016), and the Honorary Plaque from the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria (2012). Earlier on, he was bestowed the Grand Prix by the World Gallery of Cartoons in Skopje (1997), adding to the Special Award received in 1985 along the 1st Prize from the Association of Cartoonists of Macedonia, the Charter of Fine Arts Award from the Republic Self-governmental Interest Community for Culture of Macedonia, the 13th November Award from the City of Skopje, and the Special Award by the World Gallery of Cartoons in Skopje (1979).

At the XII Florence Biennale, Mice Jankulovski showcased his cycle of large-scale monochrome abstract paintings made drawing inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s Study of Flowing Water (1510-13) in London, Royal Collection (RCIN 912660). Notes on that drawing explain why multiple layered vortices of water give rise to concentric circles that expand across each other without interference. In the light of those words we may interpret the seemingly watery textured circles with silver reflections over the black, airy background of the Leonardo’s Circles series by Mice Jankulovski.


www.micejankulovski.mk