Tomislav Nikolic, It’s not that I’m ungrateful it’s just that I’m a little bored, 2023

Tomislav Nikolic has a finely tuned ability to express the spirit and power of colour through abstraction. Drawing inspiration from both everyday life and the great masters, self taught Nikolic distils and reinterprets these influences into emotionally resonant works that feel both intimate and expansive. Conveying the essence and potency of colour in his geometric abstract paintings, Nikolic, insists that a painting is a three-dimensional object. He produces numerous layers of transparent colour washes on canvas to create paintings that contain luminosity and depth. Through these layers, his colour field works have a reflective element that enables the viewer to partake in their radiance, offset by the carefully chosen artist’s frames. Nikolic created a technique for combining marble dust with pigments, allowing his medium to appear simultaneously opaque and translucent.

Nikolic has exhibited extensively in both solo and group presentations across New Zealand, Australia and internationally. Notable exhibitions include Domestic Setting: Part I, Flowers Gallery, hong Kong (2026); Frieze Seoul with STATION, Korea (2025, 2024); codice chronicles + vibration translations, STATION, Melbourne (2025); A Phoenix Journey, Ambacher Contemporary, Germany (2024); The never ending show – part 1, Xavier Fiol Contemporary Art & Projects, Spain (2023); vestiges of now, Melbourne Art Fair, Fox Jensen Gallery, Melbourne (2022); to explain how it feels, Fox Jensen McCrory Gallery, New Zealand (2021) and vestiges of now, Fox Jensen Gallery, Sydney (2018).

Tomislav was awarded the Bulgari Art Award in 2017. His work is held in numerous private and public collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Chartwell Collection at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Artbank, Australia and The Obayashi Collection, Tokyo, Japan. Tomislav currently lives and works in Naarm / Melbourne.

Tomislav Nikolic: Invocations of Consciousness

Tomislav Nikolic

Tomislav Nikolic: Invocations of Consciousness