Vuk Vidor

Vuk Vidor (; ; born 1965) is a French-Serbian artist.

Life Vuk Vidor is the son of the painter, illustrator and engraver Vladimir Veličković and the older brother of artist Marko Velk. Born in Belgrade, Serbia in 1965, he studied architecture at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts de Paris-Tolbiac (Paris-Tolbiac National School of Fine Arts) and graduated in 1990. He shows several of his utopian and conceptual architectural projects alongside pioneers such as Zaha Hadid, Morphosis, Coop Himmelblau, Eric Moss... In 1992, Vuk Vidor decides to turn to painting. His reflexion about life and death is prominent in a series of paintings entitled " Ascendance " that depicts interconnected skulls. It is a way to represent emotional, historical or even cosmic connexions between beings. His works are full of irony. The " Everlast " series is about the 4 ages of life : childhood, Adulthood, old age and death.

In 2015, Vuk Vidor created an exhibition around a fictitious industrial and scientist, Thomas Jerome Newton, a character from the 1976 movie The Man Who Fell to Earth. He built a story around the character, pretending that he was about to give an interview to Time Magazine. He feigned to have had access to the character's archives and exhibited documents about him. David Bowie, who impersonates Thomas Jerome Newton in the movie, is omnipresent in the exhibition. Vuk Vidor had previously focused on another icon, the singer and musician Elvis Presley, whose name he had changed to ‘Evils’.

Vuk Vidor has worked with musicians Goran Bregović and Marc Cerrone, and English rock band Duran Duran. He directed numerous music clips in Serbia in the 90s. In 2006, he directed a vido clip about greed for the launch of the Chrysler 300.

Committed art Vuk Vidor is a committed and political artist. In 2003 he takes side for the Refugees in an installation called Serbia Remix Project. The subject of the installation is a blue, white, and red striped plastic bag. This bag is according to him, a common feature of every victim of modern conflicts. His work is fraught with historical references and frequently deals with the idea of war. He has built a gold statue of himself in an attempt to reflect both on his ego as an artist. and on Serbian nationalism.

In a 2009 series entitled " American Quartet ", he delivers his own vision of the United States. Through figures of weary Superheroes, he denounces the myth of the Frontier and the omnipotence of the US. Captain American becomes an Atlas-like figure, bearing on his shoulder not the world but the American Dream. Jesus is also part of the exhibition, but is shown crucified to Shareholders. The inspiration of his post 9/11 world comes from pop art and American comics – a genre he likes to parody. He twists American symbols and turns heroes into useless villains. He exhibits his works in the United States to force Americans to face their contradictions. He intends to show that today " even super-heroes cannot save us ".

Conception of art Vuk Vidor's vision of art is sometimes controversial. " Vuillard was better than Bonnard, same for Tapiès, Rauschenberg used to be better, Twombly has always painted crap, Bacon was better when he was alive. ", he said in a 1999 manifesto-like work entitled " Art history ". In 2007 he co-signed an editorial in the French newspaper L’Humanité, criticizing how the French Ministry for Culture was contributing to create a normalized and monopolistic " official art ". He spoke against the " masked puppeteers " who are imposing diktats of fashion and trends in the art world. He asked for a fair repartition of temporary exhibition spaces. His work is transgressive : he even directed erotic videos.

In 2012, Vuk Vidor created the under-realist movement with Kosta Kulundzic, a Franco-American artist of Serbian origin, and the French artist Stéphane Pencréac’h. The movement is a reaction against the over-conceptualisation of contemporary painting. For them, the image is more important than the idea. The under-realism is a grouping of artists who share the same vision of the artist's condition and are trying to free themselves from the diktats of market and trends.

Recognition Vuk Vidor was awarded the Ito Ham Prize in 1986.

He was awarded the International Painting Prize of Vitry-sur-Seine in 1996. Les 7 péchés capitaux, Mazel Gallery, Brussels 2009 : Superheroe, Magda Danysz Gallery, Paris 2007 : Even Super Heroes Can't Save Us Now, Cueto Project, New York City 2003 Flesh for Fantasy, Valérie Cueto Gallery, Paris Flesh for Fantasy, Emmanuel Javogue Fine Art, Miami 2001 : Serbia Remix, Belgrade 1999 : (L)overs, Valérie Cueto Gallery, Paris Last Painting of the Century, Valérie Cueto Gallery, Paris Last Painting of the Century, Picture Show Gallery, Berlin 1995 Give me back my flag, CZKD, Belgrade Museum of Modern Art, Kragujevac, Yugoslavia Galerie 12 +, Belgrade

Group shows 2018 : Action ! La Nouvelle École française : première époque, Bastille Design Center, Paris 2015 : Blackout, Mazel Gallery, Brussels 2014 St’Art Art Fair, Mazel Gallery, Strasbourg Sur le papier, Mazel Gallery, Brussels 2013 Drawing Now, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris Under Realism 3, La Lune en parachute, Epinal, France Under Realism v. 4.0, Acentmètresducentredumonde, Perpignan, France SOON, Mazel Galerie, Brussels 2012 Louise Alexander Gallery, Porto Cervo, Italy Art Paris, Louise Alexander Gallery, Paris Quelques instants plus tard… Art & Bande dessinée, Réfectoire des Cordeliers, Paris The Gallery Poulsen Late Summer Show 2012, Poulsen Gallery, Copenhagen Une histoire vraie. Leopold Rabus & Guests, Aeroplastics Gallery, Brussels Happy Birthday Marilyn… 50 ans déjà, Mazel Gallery, Brussels Under Realism 1, Serbia Cultural Center, Paris Under Realism 2, Progres Gallery, Belgrade Tensions, Mazel Gallery, Brussels 2011 : Words and dreams. Where technology meets dreams and vice versa, 18Gallery Shanghai – Bund 18, Shanghai 2010 Vuk Vidor and Friends, Poulsen Gallery, Copenhagen The Poulsen X-Mas Show 2010, Poulsen Gallery, Copenhagen Speed Painting, Magda Danysz Gallery, Paris 2009 Vraoum !, Maison Rouge, Paris That's all Folks!, Stadshallen, Bruges, Belgium Elusive Dreams 2, Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin 2008 : Micro-Narratives: Temptation of Small Realities, Saint-Étienne Metropolis Museum of Modern Art, Saint-Étienne, France 2007 Micro Narratives, 45th October Salon, Belgrade The Theatre of Cruelty, White Box, New York Zeitgeist, Cueto Project, New York Superego, CZKD, Belgrade French Touche, Villa Tamaris, La Seyne-sur-Mer, France 2006 : Faites de beaux rêves, Nuit Blanche, Paris 2005 Artists & Arms, Maars Gallery, Moscow Exposition inaugurale, Marta Herford, Herford, Germany Art Cologne, Cologne, Germany Foire internationale d'art contemporain, Paris Art Brussels, Brussels Cosmopolis, Muséum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece My Favorite Things: Peinture en France, Contemporary Art Museum, Lyon 2004 Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Art House, Austin, United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Western Washington University, Bellingham, United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Art Brussels, Brussels Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Foire internationale d'art contemporain, Paris 2003 Central, Galerie Ernst Hilger, Belgrade Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, The Naples Museum of Art, Naples (Florida), United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Real Area Ways, Hartford, United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Université Carnegie-Mellon, Pittsburgh, United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, United States Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, North Texas University, United States Black Box, Palais de Tokyo, Paris Scope Art Fair, New York 2002 : Supercellular ! De la Particule dans les Arts Plastiques au début du XXIème siècle, Valérie Cueto Gallery, Paris – Chicago – Madrid – Miami – Turin 2000 : L'Autre Europe n°2, Jeu de Paume Gallery, Paris 1997 Vitry-sur-Seine City Gallery, Vitry-sur-Seine, France Transformers, CZKD, Belgrade 1996 Nova Gallery, Ibiza, Spain Un cadeau unique, Lucien Durand Gallery, Paris November in Vitry, Vitry-sur-Seine, France 1995 : Image pour Sarajevo, Le Sous-Sol Gallery, Paris 1994 Salon de Montrouge L’art au marché, Paris 1993 Découverte, Philippe Uzan Gallery, Paris Salon de Mai, Grand Palais, Paris Falling astronauts, Louvain-la-Neuve and Antwerp, Belgium