Slovenia-born artist, Matija Bobičić, presents paintings with unrestrained and untamed imaginative forethought. Employing mutated reflections of sci-fi and fantasy paradigms from his youth, Bobičić grapples with the filtering of American culture into post-Yugoslav Slovenia in the 1990s. Rooted within both nostalgia and an uneasy prophecy of our future, Bobičić’s work plays with the barely recognizable faces and symbols of decades past to create figures that personify the chaotic amalgamation of pop culture in our modern times.

Characters, reminiscent of ones found in 1980s and 90s movies and television, spring forth from the body of a monster in a power stance. Like an action-figure, Bobičić’s mutant stands primed to jump from the canvas, a visual immediacy that evokes memories of childhood. The artist, who grew up drawing cartoons off the tv screen, informs his artwork with this particular lens – a child’s interpretation of sci-fi and horror imagery. Originally influenced by the abstractions of Picasso, as well as the neo-expressionism of Jean Dubuffet, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Francis Bacon, Bobičić’s work has evolved over time to incorporate a rich texture both literally and figuratively. His paint, typically vibrant and quickly rendered, sits upon multiple levels of composition. Literally building upon layers of his image, Bobičić comes to the final piece by a well-honed instinct rather than planning.

In the Frankenstein-esque construction of mutant beings, Bobičić creates a reflection of the surreal world formed within the youthful imagination. The creatures are not grotesque though, but rather present themselves confidently in their chaotic and excessive splendor. They are more than toys that have fully absorbed the elements of pop and play – they signify the growing nostalgia for our generation’s past and the enthusiastic march towards an uncertain future.