Behind Tino’s house, there is a garden. Every carefully cultivated flower bed and each square of soil has been turned into a painting on a square canvas. Each canvas, with at least one painted square tells a story from his garden. Memories and joys of childhood, small fascinations and wonders, childhood troubles and questions, the things that stay with us and continue to speak to us. These memories evoke universal emotions, ones that unite rather than divide us, captured in Tino Vuković’s latest painting series – Stories from My Garden.
Abstract compositions, defined by solid geometric forms, are filled with pure colour – an element the artist has now firmly established in his visual language. In his earlier series, expressive portraits with bold, heavy brushstrokes appeared almost as if placed onto expanses of predominantly pastel tones. However, the artist’s growing fascination with colour, its conceptual and emotional potential, has gradually replaced the once-dominant figurative forms. In this series, colour takes on a leading role as the primary artistic element, with carefully balanced tones in diverse arrangements serving as vehicles for sensory and emotional expression. The artist’s expanded palette, with its harmonious and complementary contrasts, brings cohesion to the entire series and reaffirms his mastery of colour. However, the dual nature of his compositions continues to be a defining feature, seamlessly merging the figurative with the abstract, and saturation with reduction. To offset the geometric forms, the artist introduces spontaneous, nature-inspired shapes, crafting a succinct yet playful childhood iconography – sprouting seeds, blades of grass, eggs, saffron, and onions. Their presence varies, ranging from four small boiled eggs on a canvas, with squares reminiscent of Albers’ style, to a surreal composition teeming with vivid pink eggs encircled by dancing saffron flowers. The blooming rose, too, possesses a hint of surrealism. Cut yet vibrant, rendered in transparent strokes of red and green hues. Its gentle diagonal, extending across the centre of the canvas, captures the fleeting moment just before it is laid down. This portrayal of the laying gesture reflects a refined artistic sensibility, while in the background, the overarching theme is subtly hinted at, providing a key to understanding the Stories from My Garden series.
The square, as an iconic form in modern art, pervades much of the series, recalling Malevich’s Black Square and its contemplative potential, as well as Josef Albers’ later investigations into colour perception and interaction.
Suprematism, through its use of geometric shapes, explores the potential to convey universal emotions, implying that the experience of art does not necessarily stem from a literal representation, but from the inner response it evokes in the observer. In this light, a literal reading of figurative elements, such as a rose or boiled eggs, might impose restrictive boundaries and expectations; yet, it is precisely in this tension that space is created for the activation of an inner experience. The true meaning, concealed beyond the image, is subtly hinted at iconographically through seeds and bulbs, symbols of hidden potential and the energy of transformation. Still, for the artist, colour is the primary medium for expressing universal emotions, and their interaction generates (optical) sensations that deepen the experience of art. By painting a composition of soft-boiled eggs and squares in the style of Albers, the artist implies that anything can become a square – or an egg. This humorous departure from abstract seriousness emphasises that the appearance or depiction of something is ultimately insignificant, as all motifs are fundamentally the same, with the essence of art lying in its energy and universal emotions. In another witty, or rather conceptual, twist, the artist paints smaller canvases of the same size as the painted square, treating their surfaces in the same way as the background. In this way, the smaller canvas functions as a cover, and once removed and positioned on the gallery floor, it reveals how the artworks should be approached. Together, these pieces critique dogmatic artistic approaches, replacing the usual black-and-white combination of abstract purists with vibrant shades of pink and blue, while simultaneously blurring the rigid lines between the abstract and the realistic, and elevating their equal value. In Stories from My Garden, the square of soil turns becomes a painting, just as the egg becomes a square, and vice versa – the lines between form and meaning dissolve, guiding our experience beyond the literal. In doing so, Tino Vuković reminds us that, in both art and life, all forms share the same essence, and their value lies in what leaves an imprint on us and connects us, regardless of how it is portrayed.
Jelena Šimundić Bendić
Tino Vuković was born in 1987 on the island of Brač. He completed his master’s degree in painting in 2012 at the Arts Academy in Split. He currently heads the “Branislav Dešković” Art Gallery in Bol, where he is involved in numerous exhibitions as a curator, concept author, and designer of the visual layout. Since his studies, he has remained committed to his artistic practice. Vuković has participated in various group exhibitions and held several solo shows, including “Does a Bear Shit in the Woods” at the SC Gallery, Zagreb (2021), “We Are Not Like This” at the Branislav Dešković Art Gallery, Bol, Brač (2022), and “What, If, Then” at Salon Galić Gallery, Split (2022).
