“Continuity, Persistence, Line” Thinking Through Clay – A Selection of Works by Delia Prvački is an exhibition that aims to lay the foundation for understanding Delia Prvački’s practice through a selection of her works since the 1990s. Segmented into three sections – The Search, The Unknown and The Impulse – aspects of artmaking, thematic interests and ideologies are explored.

Featuring never-before-seen ceramic scale models and test tiles by Prvački, The Search showcases her iterative and cyclical approach to inventing new visual vocabularies. Prvački utilises this newfound language in The Unknown section to convey complex and layered ideas in her ceramic sculptures and installations. At The Impulse, personal and geographical histories and ideologies that propel her to create unfold in the intimate room. Collectively, the three sections chart simultaneous explorations while identifying a continuity in methods, ideas and visuals.

A Romanian-born Singaporean artist, Delia Prvački works primarily with clay to produce sculptures and site-specific installations. Grounded in the awareness of the historical and theoretical discourse of ceramics as a craft and art form, Prvački’s practice delves into themes of non-renewable resources, including their access, circulation, extraction, histories, mythologies, and mining communities.  

Prvački graduated from the Bucharest Institute of Fine Arts in 1975 and moved to Singapore in 1992. Since her relocation to Singapore together with fellow artist and partner, Milenko Prvački, her work have evolved in their conceptual and formal interests as she responds to newer stimuli of culture, economics and politics. She has also developed a strong practice in public art. Her collaborations with the NUS (National University of Singapore) community have been significant, including projects with the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials (I-FIM) and the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials (CA2DM). 

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In our first instalment of Behind the Museum (formerly known as Brown Bag Talk), Faculty Engagement Executive Shahira Banu and Public Art Executive Ling Jia Le will share their journey working with artist Delia Prvački to curate our latest exhibition “Continuity, Persistence, Line” Thinking Through Clay – A Selection of Works by Delia Prvački and its accompanying publication.

Stay tuned for more details on upcoming programmes.

This publication, “Continuity, Persistence, Line” Thinking Through Clay – A Selection of Works by Delia Prvački, accompanies the exhibition of the same title. It includes a curatorial essay by Ling Jia Le and contributions by T.K. Sabapathy and Gunalan Nadarajan, which variously explore aspects of Prvački’s conceptual approaches and practice. Additionally, the publication features a dialogue between the artist and Kenneth Tay, and a survey of writings on Prvački by Shahira Banu. These elements collectively provide a preliminary account of the artist’s history, personal views, and motivations alongside an examination of written sources.​

Continuity, Persistence, Line” Thinking Through Clay – A Selection of Works by Delia Prvački
$62

To purchase the publication, email us at museum@nus.edu.sg