10 Questions with Nina Stopar

Nina Stopar is a Slovenian artist, born in 1982. She studied Philosophy and the Slovenian language. She was a teacher for almost ten years. However, she has been interested in the field of art, and in 2016 she got an MA in Aesthetics. Here she studied contemporary art and claimed that nowadays, more than ever before, the artist himself has to become an artwork. She then dedicated her life more professionally to art, completing the MA of Painting at the Academy of Fine Art and Design in Ljubljana in 2021. 

As a teacher of 5Rhythms, she believes that movement is the gateway to creativity, abstraction, and the artistic self. Nina explores abstraction as the dance of intuition of body in motion.

www.ninastopar.art | @ninastoparartist

ARTIST STATEMENT

“When does it all begin? When I grab the brush or when I step towards the canvas?

The painting has no clear beginning, just as life does not begin with birth. As everything is interconnected, the painting is created much before the painting process in the studio begins. I unconsciously carry my images in my body, in my blood, in my lungs, in my liver, in my motion, until I dance them. Then they are painted, and now they are here for the others. They remind me of the ripe fruit offered to be eaten.

I experience the movement as an uncensored area of human life that the consumer society has not yet indoctrinated. When I move, when I dance, everything is easy. However, the body is always connected to the world and in connection with other bodies. A strongly sensitive body is a vessel of emotions, reflections, memories, pain, sorrow, joy, compassion, love. A dancing body is the purest and strongest form of perception. It inhabits the truth that arises from in it. Therefore, art created through the embodied practice of movement, as 5Rhythms dance, is subversive. Subversive for me, as the end of the process brings me back to myself. I am; I am a whole. And it is subversive for the viewer, especially if he observes the process of creation, the painting-dance performance.

Creation is the unknown, the invention, turning upside down, changing, putting together, to create slightly different, perhaps new. I attach my painting approach to the legacy of action painting and abstract expressionism and call it the intuition of a body. I’m a brush, and I’m color, I’m a shape, I’m a painting. I love to get lost in the unknown of a painting, to find my true self.” - Nina Stopar

INTERVIEW

You studied literature and philosophy and only got involved with art at a later time. What inspired you to pursue an artistic career? 

I was not planning to start an artist career. Life took me to it. From here and now, it seems so obvious that I always have been an artist. But not courageous enough to follow my most hidden dreams and live my true self. At some point, three years ago, painting became so important that I could not resist it anymore. If I said no to art, I would say no to myself. And I could not do that! I choose life. That is why I choose art and painting.

Do you remember your first experience as an artist? What did you like, and what did you dislike about the art world at first? And is it still true today?

Firstly being a women artist is completely different from being a men artist, especially because the art world is mainly oriented and led by men - you may look at the teaching staff, curators, or artists, you will mostly see men. The woman in the man's mind, doesn't matter if this is an intellectual or artist mind, is first seen as a sexual object and only secondly she is considered a being, and after she might be considered an artist.  

I stepped into this profession as a grown-up or mature person with quite some experience and intellectual background. I have a master's degree in philosophy. I have to face a lot of stereotypes as mainly I was dealing with men. 

Secondly, I am shocked how much the capitalistic world underestimates the creation itself as, on the other hand, the same capitalistic world of consumer society is everything turning into creation. Nowadays, everything is selling as art, and everyone is an artist. I firmly believe that capitalism and consumerism are abusing the word art, or we do not need galleries anymore because art is everything and everywhere? It is time to rethink the old concepts! Maybe we can start by rethinking the use of language, the meaning of the word art. What do we actually mean by art?

Stepping into the economic field of the art world, I realize everyone wants to take advantage of an artist, use and abuse him as much as possible. In the end, the painter, the creator, gets the less amount out of it. Everyone in the business chain is more creative and more artistic than the artist himself. That is absurd!

How would you define yourself as an artist?

I am not very conventional and I see myself as an open-minded person. But I would like to explore and sink much deeper. Being in the studio by myself is one of the best places I know and I own.  

Do your previous studies in literature and philosophy influence your art today? And if so, how? 

There is only one creative energy, which is put out as dance, painting, poem, song, or a story. If I do not paint, I write; if I do not write, I paint, but I always dance. I will self-publish my first book of poems with the fragments of paintings, and I did create an artist book - not a typical one, as it is more than 100 pages long written diary of an artist.

Most of all, I would like to combine all these fields or genres - literature, painting, dance, and philosophy into one multifaceted artwork, a performance. 

Another influence you quote is dance. As a dancer yourself, you define the process of creating works as a dance of the unconscious. How would you describe your creative process? 

It would sound funny, but dancing Gabrielle Roth's 5Rhythms taught me more about creativity than any other school or course I took in my life. The more I am dancing, the more creative I am. Nowadays, I can not start a painting without moving and exploring what I am carrying within me and with my breath. My creative process is a moving unconsciousness that, through movement, appears as consciousness. 

I start with laying on the empty sheet of a canvas, breathing and feeling, and then I start to move, to create. I trust my body. My body knows the lines, the colors, and the shapes. My body knows how to paint. I name my process of creating the intuition of a body and my art body intuition art. 

Where do you draw your inspiration for your works?

The main inspiration for my works is the passion for living, the passion for dying, the passion for inhaling and exhaling. It is in me, in my movement, in my alive, awakened body. It's enthusiasm. When I create, I am the most whole.

How has your art evolved over the years? And what inspired you to experiment?

My art has developed indeed. Formats have become bigger, colors stronger and more vivid. If firstly I was dancing around the canvas, now I dance, I move on the canvas and all around. I am combining different materials, and the creative process became more important than what is left at the end. The process is the core of my practice. The paintings are just the documents, like the memory, of something that happened. 

What do you think of digital exhibitions and presentations? Are you experimenting with these, or are you into more traditional ways of presenting your work, like physical exhibitions in galleries and museums? 

I am always shocked when I see the images of my paintings on a screen, but not in a positive way. I believe that every painting has its energy like we people have our energetic field. A philosopher, Walter Benjamin, talked about the aura of the painting. And for sure, he was right; the technical reproduction killed the aura of the painting. With the digital exhibition, it is the same, just that the process is dubbed. First, we take a photo of the painting, and later we upload the image to the computer. We can not feel the energy of the painting as we feel it when standing in front of it in the gallery. I strongly believe that nowadays art must open up people's hearts and makes them feel more. That is why art must be vivid, passionate, intensive, and exhibited in the galleries, available for the live, pure connection. People, after the Covid-19 shock, are even more afraid to feel and to be real. They are talking about their emotions instead of feeling them. They are seeing art instead of feeling it. Art has to awaken up our body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit. That is what art is for. 

We all had a lot of free time over the past year, and some of us dedicated it to discovering new artists. Did you find any positive change in the approach that people have to your art now, compared to last year? 

My art has been accepted. I still have not sold a painting, but the academy and some curators accepted my artistic approach. I met a curator that is quite passionate about what I am doing, and this is a good start. It is great to meet people who appreciate your passion, even more if they are willing to collaborate honestly and not to abuse you. What could be better than to start building your visions in a society that appreciates you and it is willing to follow and support you?

And lastly, what are you working on right now? Do you have any exhibitions coming up or any new projects for the future?

Right now, I am just about to self-publish my first book of poems. I am also preparing a small exhibition for December in the village where I am from. 

But the most exciting project I am working on is to develop multiple artworks - call it a performance, where everything comes together (rhythm, voice, color, poem, painting) in an exvisit way. It will be easier to apply for live performing in the galleries once I have recorded examples of the vision. 

From a financial point of view, the project is quite a challenge! It is not easy or simple to afford the space, staff, and material to work (a huge studio, tons of colors, other art material, an inspiring photographer, and a cameraman), and just blossom like a flower. Everything has a cost, and I do not have an income. I am investing and developing in the project as much as I can in the given circumstances. And I hope for the best to come out!