AMER KOBASLIJA: A SENSE OF PLACE
This exhibition celebrates the importance of place and its relationship with the work of an artist. Born in Bosnia in 1975, Amer Kobaslija fled his native country and lived several years in Germany as a refugee. He was offered asylum by the United States and settled in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1997. After earning his BFA at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, in 2003, he was awarded an MFA from New Jersey's Montclair State University in 2005. Kobaslija divides his time between New York City, Jacksonville, Switzerland, and Gettysburg College, where he is a professor of painting.
Paintings in this exhibition combine familiar Florida locations with studio interiors. Kobaslija balances working as an artist, teaching in Pennsylvania, and spending quiet summers immersed in Florida's subtropical landscape. He invites the audience into his world, employing marks that are at once immediate and calculated. The resulting pieces illustrate his fascination with Florida, his adopted home.
Works are courtesy of George Adams Gallery
ARTIST
AMER KOBASLIJA
Originally from Banjaluka in Bosnia, Amer Kobaslija (b. 1975) fled his war-ravaged homeland in 1993, and arrived in refugee camps in Nuremberg, Germany. Later, he traveled to Düsseldorf, where he attended the Kunst Akademie. In 1997, Kobaslija was offered asylum by the United States and immigrated to Jacksonville, Florida. He earned his BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2003 and his MFA from Montclair State University in 2005. He was a member of the studio arts faculty at Bowdoin College from 2009 to 2011, and has been a professor of painting at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania since 2011. He divides his time between New York City, Gettysburg, Jacksonville, and Switzerland.
Image courtesy of Thomas Hager.