Meet the artist Darko C. Nikolic

Introducing artist Darko C. Nikolic, whose work is featured in this year’s campaign for the 12th edition of Affordable Art Fair Hamburg (7 – 10 November 2024) and our 2nd edition of Affordable Art Fair Berlin (13 – 15 June 2025). Known for his constructivist arrangements of color and form, Darko is represented by the renowned Hamburg-based Affenfaust Galerie; one of our long-term exhibitors who have presented with us since 2013.

“Aside from hard edge painting and constructivism, what stands out the most in my work is development: the investigative and compositional work cycles that take place again and again in a circular rhythm. I’m a researcher among the constructivists.“

What’s special about Darko’s practice is his continuous cycle of research and composition, which uncovers new interplays of forms and colors that are then incorporated into new works. His sculptures, installations, and paintings reflect his interest in structure and rhythm. He considers the immediate perception of color and form as an essential element of his art. The works have been exhibited worldwide in museums and galleries, including the Deji Art Museum in Nanjing, China, which earned him international recognition.

We welcomed Darko to our office ahead of the fair for an in-depth look into his work, practice, and creative process. Read on and hear from Darko himself!

Interview by Hannah Weber-Heidenfels

You are working as a constructivist, how did this happen?

It wasn’t a conscious decision. I more stumbled into doing this kind of art and then I realized, hey, I really have real predecessors and I started to continue working in this tradition. Originally, the low-threshold approach of graffiti and urban art brought me to art. I am interested in the constructivist art movement and in developing it further. I adore this art style. I just feel like adding new aspects, asking new questions and continuing to work in this direction.    
 
I summarize the past and take on nuances that have not yet been formulated. I see everything a bit more structured and like to combine and further develop the systems that already exist; basic work on form and color in general, but also in the context of my predecessors.

You are an expert in form and color. What are the specifics of both of them?

“We have logic perception for the form and feeling perception for the color. And the composition of both is a very exciting thing when they come together.”

“This is not possible to be displayed on the monitor. That’s why I paint all of them.”

Is there an individual perception of color?

I believe that there is no aversion to color in that sense. There is only an aversion to the emotional world that the color represents. For example, if you feel uncomfortable with aggression, you don’t like red. You will probably reject the blue if you are not an intellectual person. Then you want something tangible. Then it’s a different color space. It’s no coincidence that children like bright colors. They are simply pure life and they are looking for pure life. That’s why you hit them with full tones. Older people will prefer whichever color corresponds to their inner being at that moment.

“Color is emotional energy. Many people have problems dealing with them because they are feelings. Basically it’s Itten’s color theory. “

For example, I’m a restless guy. When I have to paint a green picture, it’s really torture for me, but after a certain time I understand this condition. You let a side of you sound that you don’t like to let sound. There are color spaces that suit me and there are color spaces that don’t suit me. These are the biggest challenge for me but of course I also learn the most from them. I’m more of a logician and therefore find it interesting to sort through emotional worlds.

And what about the perception of form?

I’m working with the basic shapes: triangle, square and circle. But also with lines. Firstly, there is the dynamic of the form. That is, what is she doing to me? How does she work with me? Does she calm me down, does she scratch me up? Does she tempt my eyes? Is she irritating? It’s all there in one form and then there are differences in the basic form itself.

“An isosceles triangle, a very acute triangle, or a flat triangle all have completely different dynamics, completely different expressions, and do something different to us than a different version. This happens with all other forms too.”

Circles are the most difficult to achieve in hard edge painting. Circles are always a challenge for me, so I usually do them last, although they actually excite me the most. They open up graphic and aesthetic questions. Circles can, for example, produce many leftover areas that look unpleasant, so you have to deal with them specifically. 

Your work ‘On Point’ is featured in this year’s campaign of Affordable Art Fair Hamburg and Berlin. Can you tell us more about this artwork?

‘On Point’ is kind of a hybrid of two research series I did. It feels very soft and flowing even though it only has hard edges. That happens because our imagination produces a mixture of colors. In this work, behind the black lines is where the colors mix. The theme in this work is the progression that is not painted, but which you can feel. The black lines stimulate our imagination to perceive this color gradient. We just imagine it. That’s why we feel it, because our imagination tells us: This must be an interrupted color gradient.

The color spectrum that I chose has a pulsating character, on the outside it goes into the purple area, in the middle there is the yellow dot, in between are the magenta tones, it then takes on something pulsating, it goes forward, back, and stretches out. It’s like looking into a volcano. If you were to take another part of the color wheel and insert it there, for example from yellow to blue, then you go over green, then something completely different would happen. It’s somehow the same picture, but the pulsation in this warm way simply no longer takes place at all, no longer pleasant but actively unpleasant. 

Which phenomena do you create with human perception?

Our brains can’t actually process graphics. We’re not built for that at all. We are actually designed to process nature, which means that the graphical system often produce misperceptions. There’s a special system of rules for this. You can, for example, suddenly notice depths that aren’t even there. Or things suddenly start to move, even though everything is static. These are all errors made by our brain for an optical perception system that we’re not built for.

But it’s also fun to trick your own brain and your own perception. You don’t find anything like this in nature: moments of irritation, which Op Art also deals with a lot. These are phenomena, not effects. I don’t paint effects, but phenomena. You see something that is not hinted at in any way. I’ll paint you a picture without bending and it will happen inside you. It’s about the recipient having this misperception and suddenly seeing things that aren’t painted, they just happen. I find that really exciting, but this also requires research work to investigate these phenomena.

“My way of working is the opposite of impulsive. I have to plan. Nothing just happens; the processes are not suitable for that. In the drafting process, yes, but not in the painting process.”

How would you describe your working process?

I have two different systems in which I make my art. One is more researched based, where I work serially and in large comparative systems. From this I also get to know certain expressions that inspire me to create individual pieces, which I call Compositions. These don’t work on a basic system and are more complicated in structure, they often have more colors and are more playful. It’s no longer about research, but about doing something with what you’ve learned. First I need some experience, collect it for the energy and then I try to use it in the composition. The compositions in turn give rise to ideas for new series of research, from which new ideas for compositions emerge. So it feeds off each other all the time and it’s a really exciting process which has no end.   

“The sketchbooks are always much fuller, it is an endless source of inspiration as new things always appear.“

Can you tell us more about the researching process on the basic systems?

In my research processes, I create entire, thematic series of works that force me to approach the topic differently. For example, if I now concentrate on the triangle and paint, let’s say, 30 paintings just the triangle in black and white in order to process certain proportions, it’s really exciting because you get to do things you haven’t done before. You will find something new, you said you wanted to make 30 versions of it!

This is a lot of studying dynamics. This is one of the ways of working that I enjoy the most because there is a lot to discover. Sometimes you do things that others have already done that you have always rejected, certain systems for example, and only then do you discover exactly what dynamics are involved.

And I like to make that transparent for the viewer. That’s why I work directly on artwork and not just on studies for myself in the studio. I like that it’s possible to see the development processes and that I can also recognize the different dynamics in a certain situation because I paint comparisons and thus create comprehensibility.

And what are the outcomes you realize from your research series?

It’s like a trip around the world somehow. If I want to know in which country would I most like to live in, I must have traveled the whole world for that. And which shape would I like to paint the most? I have to have painted all the shapes for that. And of course that’s a lot. But then you also notice that the journey is the goal rather than painting a subject all the time.  
 
You never reach an end, there are always more ideas and possibilities. You always need more arms, octopus-like. New questions are always arising. With every study, more questions arise, like in any other research field, too. You actually always know more in the end than you don’t know and it’s always exciting to pursue it.   
 
My studio is like a research center that I have set up for myself. That’s actually my great luck: that I can sell my studies. That there are friends of very minimalist works who can appreciate the fact that color and form are handled in such a simple and basic way, without the need for a thousand effects.

Why do you work mainly on wood?

I work mainly on wood, as canvas is easily destroyed. I also like the structure of wood which is more lively. In addition to the graphic, it leads back to the natural. My very graphic works look printed very quickly. That’s why I like to bring back the living, also so that the recipient can accept it more easily and so can I. It’s a bit of a consideration and a little counterpoint. It’s important to me that my art is accepted. I could also work on aluminum and then it would look completely technical, but as a human being, would I still enjoy being around something mechanical? I don’t feel that way and that’s why I don’t work that way. We need that little break somewhere and I think that’s a fair compromise. However, this was not a conscious decision, but rather subconscious. I also have a certain level of perfection that makes me say, “OK, it’s a craft”. I do three correction phases and then I leave a small flaw.

Interview by Hannah Weber-Heidenfels

Video by Open Studio

Join us at the 12th edition of Affordable Art Fair Hamburg (7 – 10 November 2024, Hamburg Messe) to see Darko’s work up close at Affenfaust Galerie’s and Paul Roosen Contemporary‘s stand and as well at the Emerging Artist exhibition where you can see parts of his work circle ‘Archetypes of Concrete Art’.