Nikoleta Sekulovic E-book by rebeccahossackartgallery

NIKOLETA SEKULOVIC

Nikoleta Sekulovic in her studio in Madrid, 2024

Nikoleta Sekulovic

Born in 1974, Rome

Nikoleta Sekulovic is a rising star of contemporary figurative painting. Her richly worked, and richly imagined, ‘portraits’ recover lost pasts and suggest possible futures. Each painting is an act of homage to a great female figure: a poet, philosopher, activist, or literary heroine: from the Victorian mathematician, Countess Ada Lovelace, to the New Zealand suffragette, Kate Sheppard, via Virginia Woolf and Emily Dickinson.

Sekulovic’s art engages with the notion of identity in a profound and symbolic way. The artist’s distinctive style is imbued with a sense of contemporary craftsmanship that recalls Pre-Raphaelite design philosophy. The iconic legacy of Victorian artist, poet and social activist, William Morris, and his female contemporaries, is a pertinent fount of inspiration. Through her expressive transcription of Morris’s original floral designs, and her inscription of apposite written texts on to the back of her canvases, Sekulovic celebrates – and connects with – the moral and intellectual ideals of her subjects, whilst binding them to her own unique vision.

Sekulovic’s work is held in numerous prestigious private collections across the globe, including in Palm Beach, Florida, Seattle, Washington, London, UK and Dehli, India.

Artist Statement

The idea of this collection, although still in its infancy, stirs within me a vision: the paintings must convey atmosphere and stir the very air they inhabit.

The essence of the work is not to bring the viewer inward into its world, but the very opposite, to spill forth from the canvas, to pour itself beyond the edges of the frame and into the space, suffusing the room with the richness of its being. I hope that when one steps into its presence, the very atmosphere hums with life. The air should thicken with the vibrancy of color, its depth reaching into the soul and lingering long after the eyes have turned away.

Each painting carries with it an intention singular in its purpose—to evoke a kind of lush exuberance, a fullness that feels as though a garden is in full, unrestrained bloom. I desire the room to quiver with the breath of the painting, to feel as though the flowers within it are not merely painted forms but living beings, reaching out, their scent filling the air, thickening it with perfume.

The landscape likewise must not rest within the boundaries of the canvas. The horizon must stretch beyond itself, and in the stillness, one might hear the soft trill of birdsong, the whisper of wings, the rustling of leaves, the shiver of a breeze through the air.

But it is not nature alone that I wish to convey, nor the portraiture of a figure. What I long to capture is the lingering mystery of a scene, a silence so thick it seems laden with untold stories. The very air of the room should tremble with the profusion of scent. The golden sunsets in the distance should bleed softly into the room itself, casting a warm glow upon the furniture, the floor, the very breath of the air. One should feel the weight of the April breeze as it sweeps through the space—chill against the skin, heavy with the scent of fresh earth, rustling of leaves, the whole pulsating to a haunting and serene heart beat.

What I desire is to conjure a mood, a sublime atmosphere, not merely to capture a scene. The painting is no longer an object to behold; it becomes the room, and in that union, the ambience grows thick, laden with emotion. Truly my aim is for the very walls to tremble with the painting’s life, its presence pulsating with an energy so dense, so profound, that it stirs the deepest recesses of one’s soul.

Elizabeth Gaskell, 2024

acrylic and oil stick on linen

220 x 195 cm

Lin Huiyin, 2025

acrylic and oil stick on linen

200 x 220 cm

Mary Setton Watts, 2025

acrylic and oil stick on linen

200 x 170 cm

Emilie Barrington, 2025

acrylic and oil stick on linen

200 x 270 cm

Jane Eyre, 2025

acrilyc and oil stick on linen

200 x 130 cm

Jane Barlow, 2025

acrylic and oil stick on linen

200 x 220 cm

Anna Maria Luisa De’ Medici, 2025

acrylic and oil stick on linen

200 x 150 cm

Orlando (Reign of Elizabeth I), 2024

acrylic and oil stick on linen

220 x 200 cm

Anna Karenina, 2025

acrylic and oil stick on linen

200 x 220 cm

Mabel Beardsley, 2024

acrylic and oil stick on linen

270 x 195 cm

Emily Bronte, 2024

acrylic and oil stick on linen

212 x 187 cm

Jane Austen, 2024

acrylic and oil stick on linen

220 x 195 cm

Daphne du Maurier, 2024

acrylic and oil stick on linen

270 x 195 cm

‘The gardens of Fernham lay before me in the spring twilight, wild and open, and in the long grass, sprinkled and carelessly flung, were daffodils and bluebells, not orderly perhaps at the best of times, and now wind-blown and waving as they tugged at their roots. The windows of the building, curved like ships’ windows among generous waves of red brick, changed from lemon to silver under the flight of the quick spring clouds.’

Virginia Woolf