Jelena Tomašević was born in Podgorica, Montenegro in 1974. Jelena lives and works in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. She graduated from the school of fine arts MFA, Academy of Fine Arts in Cetijie, Montenegro. Her work has been shown in several museums: the Kunstalle Fredricianum, Kassel, Germany, Center for Contemporary Art Podgorica, Montenegro, National Museum of Montenegro, Whitebox Art Center New York, USA, the 9th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey. She also represented Montenegro/Serbia at the 51st Venice Biennal. In 2017 she won the 23rd edition of the Onufri Prize, at the National Gallery in Tirana, Albania, curated by Gaetano Centrone.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019
Mixed Memories, Rita Urso Gallery, Milan (Italy)
2016
Burden of Proof, Galerie Perpetuel, Frankfurt (Germany)
Installation Life Interest, Handel Street Projects, London (United Kingdom)
2013
Installation Object of Punishment, Galerie Perpetuel Frankfurt (Germany)
Video Rain, Residency Unlimited, New York (USA)
2010
Video Installation, Galerie Herrenhausen, Hannover (Germany)
Apparent Servitude, Artopia Gallery, Milan (Italy)
Apparent Servitude, Center for Contemporary Art Podgorica (Montenegro)
2008
Just Kidding, Video, Gallery Thrust Projects, New York (USA)
2007
Exhibition “Now That We Have Gone As Far As We Can Go....” Galerie Conrads, Düsseldorf (Germany)
Just Kidding, curated by Gabriela Serusi, Artopia Gallery, Milan (Italy)
Buero.DC, curated by Susanne Prinz, Cologne (Germany)
2006
Joy of Life II, Thrust Projects, New York (USA)
1999
Love Machines, Installation Budva (Montenegro)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020
The Line of Sight, (with Thordis Adalsteinsdottir, Emanuele Becheri, Adrian Paci, Renata Poljak, Giada Giulia Pucci, Moira Ricci, Jelena Tomašević, ZAPRUDER Filmmakersgroup), Artopia Gallery, Milan (Italy)
Good Trouble. Artists responds to the 2020 Presidential Election, Whitebox Art Center, New York (USA)
2019
Exodus, National Museum of Montenegro, Cetinje (Montenegro)
2018
White Anxieties, WhiteBox Gallery, New York (USA)
Unprofessionals, Art Gallery, Podgorica (Montenegro)
Perceptions, National Museum Cetinje (Montenegro)
Unprofessional, ISU- Institute for Contemporary Art, Podgorica (Montenegro)
2017
She represented Montenegro/Serbia at the 51st Venice Biennal, Venice (Italy)
The Future of Borders, curated by Manray Hsu, Autostrada Biennale
Art of the Postcard, Handel Street Projects, London (United Kingdom)
Beacon Bureau at Roaming Room-Roaming Room, London (United Kingdom)
Gallery Centar, Podgorica (Montenegro)
2016
Concrete+Clay, Roaming Room, London (United Kingdom)
Coming all Together Galerie Perpetuel Frankfurt (Germany)
Cold Winds from Balkan, curated by Ali Akayi and Alenka Gregoric, Pera Museum, Istanbul (Turkey)
Midpointness, Transart Triennial (United Kingdom)
Midpointness Airspace Gallery, Stoke (United Kingdom)
Strageness/ Amazingness, 49. Hercegnovski zimski salon, Galerija Josip-Bepo Benkovic, Herceg Novi (Montenegro)
2015
Recycling Religion, WhiteBox Gallery New York (USA)
Recycling Religion, Satellite Art Fair, Miami(USA)
Satellite Art FAIR, Miami (USA)
Intimate Transgressions WhiteBox Gallery, New York (USA)
Wo das Gras gruner ist, Kunstmuseum (Liechtenstein)
Coexistance for a new Adriatic koine, Fondazione Museo Pino Pascali, Polignano a Mare (Italy)
2014
Coexitence, National Museum, Cetinje (Montenegro)
Procvetaj, Cveta Zuzuric, Belgrade (Serbia)
Coexitence, National Museum, Tirana (Albania)
EGO SUM, Center for Contemporary Art (Montenegro)
Paint Me Sculpturly, Artopia Gallery, Milan (Italy)
2013
Imaginarni Balkan, curated by Bosko Boskovic, Belgrade (Serbia)
Subjective Maps/Disappearances-National Gallery of Iceland (Iceland)
Group Exhibition Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
Charlama Balkana, Luciano Benetton (Italy)
2012
Crossing, National Centre for Contemporary Art, Ekaterinburg (Russia)
Fluidentiteti ArsAevi, Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
Crossing, Museum of Contemporary Art Erarta u Sankt Peterburgu (Russia)
Multipla Market, Handel Street Project, London (United Kingdom)
2011
Free Port of Art, Trieste Contemporanea (Italy)
1 Time Machine Biennale, Atomski bunker, Konjic (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
The Quadrilateral Biennial, Out of Left Field, MMSU-Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka (Croatia)
Real Presence, Belgrade (Serbia)
2010
Quartet, Four Biennials Reflected in Prints, International Centre of Grafic Arts MGLC, curated by Rene Block, Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Sweet Little Dirty Things, Kultur Kontakt, Wien (Austria)
Gender Check, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (Poland)
The Rise and Fall of Excess Culture, Stux Gallery, New York (USA)
2009
Dear Countryman and Women, Gallery MC, New York (USA)
Gender Check, MUMOK Museum, Wien (Austria)
Piccolo Stato, San Marino (San Marino)
Festival novih vizuelnih tendencija, While Rome is Burning, Dom omladine, Belgrade (Serbia)
2008
Exhibition farmers Market, Gallery Handle Street Projects, London (United Kingdom)
Quartett/Vier Biennalen im Spiegel grafisher Blatter, TANAS, curated by Rene Block, Berlin (Germany)
Art Forum Berlin, Galerie Conrads, Berlin (Germany)
Arco Madrid, Galerie Conrads, Madrid (Spain)
Artist/Citizen 49 October Salon, Belgrade (Serbia)
Pulse Art, New York (USA)
Art Brussels, Galerie Conrads,Brussels (Belgium)
2007
Best Regards from the blind spot Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Bilbao (Spain)
Regards from Serbia and Montenegro, Sacramento State University (USA)
Horizon EFA Gallery, Curated by David Humphtey, New York (USA)
Inbetweeness, Rome (Italy)
Off – Center Femininities, curated by Jovana Stokic, Windows of Kimmel Center, New York University (USA)
Art Brussels, Galerie Cobnrads, Brussels (Belgium)
Lollypop, Body and Consumption, Museum of Contemporary Arts of Vojvodina (Serbia)
2006
Collapsible Monuments, Thrust Projects, New York (USA)
Art, Life & Confusion, curated by Rene Block ana Barbara Hinrich, 47th October Salon Belgrade (Serbia)
ScaryTels, Filiale, Berlin (Germany)
Vienna Art, Thrust Projects, Wien (Austria)
Cross the Line, Galerie Conrads, Dusseldorf (Germany)
East to West, AP4-ART, Geneve (Switzerland)
2005
FEM5-VideoFestival, VideoDrive (Spain)
The Biennial Portfolios, curated by Rene Block, 9th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul (Turkey)
Montenegrin Beauty, Kunstlerhaus Behanien Berlin (Germany)
Montenegrin Beauty, Mottorenhalle, Dresden (Germany)
The Eros of Slight Offence, Pvilion of Serbia & Montenegro, 51 st Venicce Biennial, Venice (Italy)
S1 Salon-Sheffield (United Kingdom)
In the Gorges of the Balkans, Kunsthalle Fridericianum Museum Kassel (Germany)
AWARDS
2017
Onufri International Prize, National Gallery of Arts, Tirana (Albania)
2016
Award Hercegnovskog likovnog salona 2016 (Montenegro)
2007
Award for best young artist of Montenegro, Centre for Contemporary Art (Montenegro)
2001
Award Hercegnovski likovni salon 2001 (Montenegro)
1991
Award Hercegnovski likovni salon 1991 (Montenegro)
Award Milunovic-Stijovic-Lubarda (Montenegro)
1990
Award Podgoricki likovni salon 1990 (Montenegro)
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY AND PUBLICATIONS
2017 | ARTIBUNE Italia, by Cristiana Colli, "Il nuovo Kosovo passa per Autostrada Biennale"
2016 | Journal Frankfurt, by Ana Maria Milkovic "Auf der Suche nach Schwimmbad und einem Gedanken von Jean-Christophe Ammann"
2016 | Financial Times London, by Harriet Fitch Little,"Is loyalty to an art gallery outdated?"
2016 | Catalogue Jelena Tomasevic, "Life Interest", Publisher: Handel Street Projects, London, p 2. Darian Leader.
2014 | Wall Street International Art "Paint me Sculpturally"
2013 | Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, by Christoph Schutte, "Duschen und Staunen", p. 50
2013 | The Paris Review, by David Gendelman, "Offsides, part 2"
2013 | Psychology Tomorrow Magazine, New York, "Concrete Counterpoints"
2010 | Catalogue: "Jelena Tomasevic. Apparent Servitude", p 3. Petar Cukovic: Cemu kontejneri u oskudno vrijeme? Published by Center for Contemporary Art, Montenegro
2010 | Catalogue: "Noten Und Notizien", Hannover, p 59. Editor: Hannoversche Gesellschaff fur Neue Music e. V
2007 | Sacramento News&Review, by Jonathan Kiefer, "Sharpest Regards"
2007 | NY Arts Magazine by Jovana Stokic "Cosmopolitan Subject", p. 38
2007 | "Jelena Tomasevic", p. 78, Lodovico Pratesi e Dobrila Denegri, Editors: Hopefulmonster
2006 | Artmargins online, by Dimitri Kozyrev, "Un-doing monoculture: women artists from the "Blind spot of Europe" - the former Yugoslavia"
2006 | Flash Art, by Andrea Bellini "Cautions Alternatives"
2006 | Art In America by Stephen Maine, "Report from New York Down East", p. 65
2005 | Art in America, by Linda Nochlin, "Venice Bienniale, What Befits a Woman?", p. 123
2005 | Catalogue: "Eros of Slight Offence", Svetlana Racanovic, p. 55, "Milenijumski bag", Svetlana Racanovic, p. 54, Editor National Museum of Montenegro Book,
2005 | Focus, by J Emil Sennewald, "Zwischen Erfahrung und Engagament"
2005 | Kunst Bulletin, by J .Emil Sennewald, "Zwischen Erfahrung und Engagement"
2004 | Catalogue: "Road on The Wall, Wall AS a Road", Text by Svetlana Racanovic, p. 4
2003 | Catalogue: "In Den Schluchten Des Balkan", Editor Barbara Heinrich, Izdavač: Documenta und Museum Fridericianum. str 121
2003 | FREENET, by Bulent Gunduz, "Grobte Kunstschau der Welt"
2002 | Catalogue: "Bound/Less Borders", Editor: Goethe Institute Belgrade, p 28.
"15th Istanbul Biennial, Book, A good Neighbour", Short story, page. 536 Concept: Elmgreen& Dragset. Editor: Erin Serifoglu.
Pudding Explosion, by Michalea Fila "Jelena Tomasevic - Object of Punishment in der Galerie Perpetuel"
Catalogue: "Inbetweeness- Balcani: metafore di cambiamento."
Catalogue: "Cold Front from the Balkans", Editor: Pera Museum Istanbul, p 120
Catalogue: "Art, Life & Confusion". Editor: Kulturni centar Beograd. Rene Block. p 206
Catalogue: "Urbanci", Text by Petar Cukovic, Editor National Museum of Montenegro, p 22