“I’m trying to give you a sense of what it feels like to stand on a hill, looking out across a landscape of destruction. I want to commemorate what was lost but also say to the victims and survivors, ”˜Your painful experience will not be forgotten.’ Art can serve a purpose, to help us remember.”

Drawing on his own experience of survival, Bosnian-born painter Amer KobaÅ¡lija responds to the devastation caused by the tsunami that hit the Tôhoku region of Japan in 2011. Originally from Banjaluka, Bosnia, KobaÅ¡lija fled the war-ravaged country in 1993 arriving to a refugee camp in Nuremberg, Germany. In 1997, KobaÅ¡lija’s family was offered asylum by the United States. He completed B.F.A. in Printmaking at the Ringling College of Art and Design and M.F.A. in Painting at Montclair State University. KobaÅ¡lija has held numerous one-person exhibitions in New York City, Paris, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Miami. He is the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and Guggenheim Fellowship, amongst many others.

Presented by the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and the Center for Japanese Studies

For more information, please see the following websites:

http://umstampsschool.tumblr.com/post/62061321767/wow-more-to-look-forward-to-in-another-season-of#notes

http://umstampsschool.tumblr.com/post/65350240162/im-trying-to-give-you-a-sense-of-what-it-feels#notes

http://printstamps.tumblr.com/post/62030425792/witt-visiting-artist-amer-kobaslija-i-am-thrilled

http://printstamps.tumblr.com/post/65299826530/witt-visiting-artist-amer