Stefan Lukić

BIOGRAPHY

Stefan Lukić is a Serbian visual and performance artist whose vision is to capture the universal state of being in transit, migration, and constant movement. He is intrigued by the role of travelers and eyewitnesses, and he strives to represent them through his art. Roads, distances, and we—as travelers—become the connection between places, memories, ideas, people, life, love, human struggle, and death. Stefan Lukić’s paintings almost always speak of the process of searching and of transitional points — expressing feelings of constant flux, a movement that never ends. He reminds us that it is all about the journey, not the destination. He emphasizes the act of wandering the road more than the act of arriving. In his paintings, we discover more about how we are seeking, and less about what we are seeking. Performances by Stefan Lukić — or, as he calls them, drawing-events — are similar to his paintings. They are rawer, unfiltered like life itself, without any mediation, embracing all the unpredictable situations that may arise. Stefan Lukić completed his Master’s studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 2022. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 2018 and completed his third year of studies at the Academy of Fine Arts (ENSBA) in Paris in 2017. He was a resident at Domus Artist Residency, Galatina, Italy (2025); Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France (2024); Kunstepidemin, Gothenburg, Sweden (2021); and Homesession Art Space, Barcelona, Spain (2021). He completed a masterclass at the Royal Academy (Rijksakademie), Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 2019. He participated in the 13th Performance Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the 31st Memorial of Nadežda Petrović in 2022. He was a finalist for the Mangelos Award for Contemporary Art in 2021 and received the painting award from the Faculty of Applied Arts in 2016. He has had several solo exhibitions, including: Capital Offense, Quattro, Milan, Italy (2025); 24/7, Gothenburg, Sweden (2021); Tram Called Desire – The First Round in Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (2021); Second Round in Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo, Monaco (2021); Size Does (Not) Matter, Catch 22, Belgrade, Serbia (2021); As Far as My Legs Will Carry Me, Dobrinjska 5, Belgrade, Serbia (2020); Interspace, U10 Art Space, Belgrade, Serbia (2018); YUGOnostalgia, National Theatre, Užice (2017); and Face and Reverse, National Museum, Kragujevac, Serbia (2016). He has participated in group exhibitions in Paris, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, and Kragujevac. He currently lives and works in Paris, France.

Grand Tour, Galatina Italy (2025)

Inspired by the motto of the ancient painter Apelles motto “not a day without a line", Stefan Lukić reflects on how this principle, which was once a call for consistent artistic practise, has been absorbed into today’s hyper-productive, profit-orientated culture. In an age where even free time is branded as “serious digital leisure", the pressure to produce something, be it through social media posts or professional performances, is constant and relentless. Lukić's residency at Domus in Galatina challenges this mindset by transforming the Grand Tour, a symbol of elite artistic education, into a performance of daily endurance through running. From 1 June 2025, he will extend his run by 500 metres every day, drawing metaphorical lines across Italy via Strava that reflect the burden of daily work and ever-increasing expectations. His project not only traces space, but also time, a nostalgic search for lost rhythms and a longing for moments that may never have existed, and the question of whether time can still be enjoyed rather than consumed. While the Grand Tour once offered aristocrats cultural enrichment, today’s reality replaces reflection with “active” holidays and constant stimulation. Lukić's work invites us to pause and ask ourselves: can we still slow down, rest and rediscover a meaningful relationship with time — or are we forever condemned to live by the line?

A Streetcar Named Desire (2021)

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Lukić takes us through a fragment of Barcelona, opening the first part of a trilogy of circles entitled Victory Is (Not) an Art. On the day that one of Barcelona’s most famous inhabitants, the celebrated Antonio Gaudí, passed away (June 10, 2021) Lukić began his cinematic race by marking a piece of the city with the slogan: “With the desire to set out.” Lukić's artwork aims to pay homage to Gaudí's Barcelona, his life and his work, in a paradoxical, inverted, routinely nonsensical and yet artistically complex way, while simultaneously driving the city’s inhabitants and passers-by into the victorious corner or cul-de-sac of art. Lukić's performance begins by pushing pedestrians into the narrow passage of a Barcelona street; an expressed desire for expeditions, crossings, and openings, shot in black and white, in Serbian, and “stamped” with a green print that reads "Victory Is (Not) an Art", compresses the discomfort of the people around him into a single meter, into an urban pocket, into the niche of a street corner. In the first round, Lukić circled the traffic circle of the Marina metro station as a tribute to Gaudí, and recorded his movement on a GPS map. This circuit, titled A Streetcar Named Desire, is a race in front of the streetcar - a run, a provocation, a guidance of this unstable vehicle at high speed. Gaudí ended his life under a streetcar, and left his monumental work, the famous Sagrada Família, still under construction, unfinished. Through Lukić's challenge, and the streetcar's deliberately thwarted victory, we are reminded of the grandeur and ingenuity of Gaudí's architecture and his artistic dedication to the work, while questioning the place of desire, the path, the destination and the relationships between their meanings.

Size Does (Not) Matter! (2021)

Stefan Lukić transformed a poem by the writer Vladimir Tabašević, which was written as a critique of his work As Far Away as My Feet Will Carry Me, into a 500-square- meter mosaic artwork. The work consists of more than 600 individual, hand-painted pieces that were created in a two-month process. By shifting the focus from the textual content to its physical presence, size, and materiality, the artist symbolizes the tension between artistic practice and the collaborative, performative nature of contemporary art-making. On February 27, 2021, the mosaic was collaboratively assembled in a performative action on Trg Slobode in Novi Sad. After its completion, it was immediately dismantled and transported back to Belgrade, where the now partially torn and illegible fragments were exhibited in a gallery as a sprawling, fragmented surface to challenge conventional notions of clarity and accessibility in both art and criticism. Spread out on the gallery wall, the artworks were illuminated in blue light, reflecting the chosen color theme of this piece. The visual display was accompanied by a soundscape of a dramatically slowed-down recording of the poem. The distorted words were reduced to an unintelligible hum, reinforcing the image of fragmented communication. With this multi-sensory installation, the artist succeeded in immersing the visitors in a meditative, almost surreal atmosphere that invited them to reflect on the interplay of meaning, perception, and art.

By Your side (2020)

In Mitrovica, a bridge marks the division between the Serbian and Albanian people. While this division is not officially acknowledged as a border by Serbia, which does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state, it nonetheless exists as a site of tension and significance. Stefan Lukić sensed this tension when he made the bridge the focus of his artwork. In an artistic exploration, the artist wanted to investigate how one could intervene with such a charged space, which contains much more than just a rift through the land. Lukić therefore decided to run back and forth on the bridge, from one side to the other, while recording his steps in the form of a digital drawing. Within this drawing, the border would eventually disappear into the thick lines. Before the run, Lukić advertised the work with one of his parols placed in Kosovska Street in Belgrade, featuring the date of the performance and the sentence, “Stefan Lukić does not know the border”. During the event, Lukić was confronted with numerous restrictions and disturbances, ranging from a film ban to interference from Serbian, Albanian and Italian UN border guards as well as threats of arrest. It turned out that no one had run across this bridge for over twenty years.

As Far Away as My Feet Will Carry Me (2020)

Shortly after the first wave of COVID-19, Stefan Lukić decided to perform a 10-day running series that began in his studio and led to the ten cemeteries of Belgrade. With this deeply personal project, Lukić wanted to translate the tension of this time’s confinement into movement and creation, combining physical endurance, performance art, and urban exploration. The runs became a way of symbolically liberating himself, retracing his steps, and drawing lines—literally and metaphorically—connecting his past, present, and visions of the future. At the end of each route, the artist made a symbolic turn—a deliberate movement away from the threshold of a cemetery and a sign of refusal to bow to stagnation or finality—opting instead for renewal and dynamic forward movement. In collaboration with a gallery, each run was live-streamed, attracting great media attention. The run itself was also documented as a GPS drawing, reflecting the artist's interest in rethinking concepts of tracing time and memory. This was further explored when friends and family selected memory triggers and placed them along the running route. During the runs, Lukić encountered these triggers, transforming each route into a personal dialogue with his own history, identity, and aspirations. One day before the series began, the artist announced the event on Instagram by sharing footage of himself running across hand-painted posters featuring paroles with comments on his work from various figures in the art scene. The performance culminated after the ten days in an exhibition that took place in a private apartment in the same building as his studio, where the paroles were presented alongside the GPS drawings and documentation.

Journey to the End of the Night (2019–2021)

Inspired by traveling and moving between places, Stefan Lukić embarked on a personal exploration of light, movement, and time. Here, movement becomes an act of imagination, existing only in the swift brushstrokes and flowing colors of the paintings. Developed into a series, the works relate to one another like snapshots on a journey. The monochrome colors are reminiscent of documentary photography, while the comic-like image fragments suggest the continuity of a story. Through blurred lines and fogged images, the artist creates a disorientation for the viewer. Although the paintings seem to tell a story, there is neither a point of departure nor a destination. Instead, the focus lies on the movement itself, the in- between, the transit, and the passage of time. In his attempt to catch a glimpse of a second, Lukić opens up the possibility of seeing the fragility of each moment, just before it collapses.

The Start is the Finish - The Finish is the Start (2019)

The intersection of art and sport offers great potential to challenge social structures. In his participation in the Belgrade Ironman Triathlon, Stefan Lukić subverted conventional norms by using the finish line as his starting point, deconstructing conventional social patterns and rethinking issues such as motivation, memory, and social structures. Recognizing that this performance would be an extreme physical endeavor, Lukić committed to an intense training schedule that became a journey of self-motivation, goal-setting, and dedication. By reversing the order of the competition, the artist encountered an interplay between individual effort and structural frameworks, raising critical questions about how these dynamics shape power structures in social landscapes. In the process, seemingly fixed boundaries blurred, allowing the audience to imagine possibilities outside the conventional framework. Moreover, by retracing the steps of the structured triathlon, the artist uncovered traces of memory embedded in the present, revealing how past experiences shape current motivations. The performance was documented in a GPS drawing as well as photos and videos by befriended artists. The GPS drawing transformed the event into a tangible, lasting piece of art, blurring the lines between ephemeral action and permanent creation.

Interspace (2017-2019)

Spaces of transit are usually understood as temporary, fleeting, and seemingly insignificant. However, as an artist who frequently moves between different cities and cultural contexts, Stefan Lukić repeatedly finds himself in such moments of transit, and increasingly comes to understand them as incredibly meaningful. In Interspace, the artist captures in carefully rendered paintings the emptiness and tension of spaces that are neither origin nor destination. The roads seem to stretch into infinity, interrupted only by faint horizons or abstracted landscapes, reminding the viewer of the universal human condition of constant movement through time, space, and experience. The muted tones and layered textures simultaneously emphasize the transience of the spaces in between, creating both a sense of continuity and separation. Devoid of human figures, the viewer is invited to immerse themselves in the work, feeling the weight of the journey without distraction. By depicting the road as an entity, rather than a means to an end, the artist explores themes of impermanence, instability, and the human experience of existing in between states. The focus is shifted entirely to the journey, questioning common assumptions, refusing to let the moment pass, and instead opening a dialogue about the metaphorical paths we all travel through life.

I’m Going to Be Back (2017)

After his acceptance to the renowned École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Stefan Lukić's excitement was quickly tempered by thoughts about the significance of his departure. In Serbia, leaving the country is often seen as a success—a path to a better future, usually without the longed-for return. The narrative of education as a stepping stone to emigration is therefore deeply ingrained, with many equating leaving the country with personal and professional validation. Confronted with the phenomenon of “brain drain,” in which educated individuals leave their home countries to pursue opportunities abroad, the artist developed a statement that soon became the centerpiece of his first solo exhibition: “I am going so I can come back.” Originally planned as a project to finance his studies, the exhibition soon took on a much deeper meaning and attracted a great deal of attention. It was no longer just about him but about all those who struggle with the tension between staying and leaving. After all, the act of leaving is often accompanied by the promise of return; yet the phrase “I am going so I can come back” remains inherently ambiguous. The statement became a living artwork. Lukić created a hand-painted billboard that read, “Stefan Lukić is going to Paris: I am going so I can come back! Let’s encourage the locals, and in the end, long live art!” He spread this campaign all the way from Belgrade to Užice, where the exhibition took place. The sign became a mantra, symbolizing both a promise and a question—a way of exploring what it means to leave, to return, and to belong.

A Walk Through the City (2016)

Understanding the city as a landscape of memory, it becomes a multi-layered entity that interweaves history, politics, and personal narratives. Walking through a city reveals its stories and shapes how we perceive its layers. On March 28, 1999, during the NATO bombing of Serbia, Serbian officials reassured citizens by claiming the presence of the Russian S-300 missile system hidden in the silos of Vojvodina. On the 17th anniversary of this event, an anti-NATO protest in Belgrade inspired Stefan Lukić to undertake a performative walk through the city. He visited places tied to the national memory of these events while carrying a hand- drawn picture of the modernized Russian S-400 missile system. Each stop was documented in a photo, which he later posted on Facebook with the slogan, “Stefan Lukić feels safe!” During his walk, the artist encountered various reactions from passers-by, ranging from supportive greetings to sharp criticism. One moment remains vivid: a baker rushing out of his shop, shouting, “Bring it here, bring it here!” The placement of the drawings became an exploration of the intersection between public memory and individual reflection. This interaction highlighted the tension between memory, identity, and public space. Through his walk, Lukić navigated the mental architecture of social and individual memory, confronting collective trauma while sensing the resilience embedded in these places. By juxtaposing personal imagery with historically charged sites, he invited viewers to reconsider their relationship with the city and its multi-layered identity.

A Car as a Body of Nostalgia (2015-1017)

In A Car as a Body of Nostalgia, Stefan Lukić explores the car as a metaphor for the body that holds an identity. Much like humans, it has a physical presence that embodies time, purpose, and ultimately decay. In this series of paintings, the artist reflects on the metaphorical relationship between bodies and their experiences. The scrapped and abandoned cars become representations of nostalgia; their rusty shells, cracked windows and faded paint give an insight into a life that has been lived and stories that remain untold. By portraying these cars, Lukić transforms their material presence into symbols of decay and raises questions about the preservation of memory. The cars become monuments reminiscent of another time and representing resilience in their materiality. The brushstrokes become evidence of a journey. Each work thus serves to convey memory by examining the car as an object that contains both literal and symbolic elements, capturing the feeling of nostalgia. The viewer is invited to reflect on their own past and the vehicles that have both literally and figuratively carried them through their lives.

EXHIBITIONS

Capital Offense, Quattro Gallery, Milan, Italy (2025)

24/7, Konstepidemin, Gothenburg, Sweden (2021)

Size Does Not Matter, Alternative Space Kvaka 22, Belgrade, Serbia (2021)

A Streetcar Called Desire – First Round: Obverse and Reverse, Homesession, Barcelona, Spain (2021)

Second Round in Monte Carlo, in the slaughterhouse “Maison Lino”, Monte Carlo, Monaco (2021)

The Last Lap in Monza, Creative Studio Opal, Milan, Italy (2021)

Interspace, U10 Art Space, Belgrade, Serbia (2018)

Line, Student City Cultural Centre, Belgrade, Serbia (2018)

YUGOnostalgia, National Theatre, Užice, Serbia (2017)

STEFAN LUKIĆ

Serbian visual and performance artist. Lukić's artistic work is created in the domain of painting, drawing, performance as well as interventions in public space.