About the artist

I am Sinisa Janjic aka Primitive RE, a self-taught contemporary artist based in Belgrade, Serbia, working with acrylics, oils, oil sticks, spatulas, pencils, drawings, and whatever tools I find in my studio.

My work is marked by bold forms, vibrant colors, and deeply personal narratives. I approach to my abstract and figurative work as an energetic output process, using palette knives and spatulas for mark-making, and encompassing personal stories, everyday life, struggles, and triumphs.
The use of bright colors, bold forms, particularly pink, juxtaposed with dark, assertive lines, evokes both vibrancy and conflict, creating a dynamic tension between softness and strength.

About the artwork

This artwork reimagines the Neoplatonic struggle for transcendence, depicting a warrior with a flower head locked in battle with a lion. The warrior embodies the soul’s journey of transformation, where strength and fragility coexist—the raw force of the beast against the enlightened bloom of the self. In Renaissance Neoplatonism, physical battles often symbolized the inner conflict between the material and the divine, between base instincts and the pursuit of higher wisdom. The warrior’s floral head suggests spiritual awakening, growth beyond destruction, and the harmony of opposites—echoing the Renaissance ideal of uniting the earthly and the celestial. Through bold, abstract forms and dynamic movement, this piece becomes an allegory of becoming, struggle, and ultimate transcendence.