For its participation in Art Brussels 2025, z2o Sara Zanin is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Adelisa Selimbasic, a Bosnian-Italian painter born in 1996, based in New York. Known for her intimate and nuanced approach to the human body, Selimbasic explores themes of femininity, identity, and presence through fragmented forms and suggestive detail.
The artist’s work focuses not on portraying specific individuals, but rather on evoking a broader, inclusive notion of femininity—one that transcends gender and can belong to anyone. Her figures, often shown in states of embrace or gentle contact, carry both presence and absence: they exist through gestures, through the curve of a hand, the tilt of a head, or the subtle suggestion of skin.
Faces are often left unseen, shifting the emotional center to the details: a chipped nail polish, a particular hairstyle, the curve of an almond-shaped nail or a pair of tied-back curls. These visual cues become anchors of identity, acting as intimate symbols that viewers may recognize in themselves. Selimbasic challenges dominant ideals and reclaims the body as a site of multiplicity, tension, and self-recognition.
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The party is over, or seems to be about to end: how could a young Italian-Bosnian artist based in New York not convey this through her new works, created during the harsh winter months ? Adelisa Selimbašić forges her own path: the countries she crosses by participating in international exhibitions - ranging from Antwerp to Miami, Los Angeles to Berlin - confirm it. In the meticulous preparation of a new body of work for her solo exhibition at Art Brussels 2025, presented by z2o Sara Zanin Gallery from Rome, she continues to depict imperfect and captivating bodies, perfectly cast in the contemporary world. But this time, her gaze appears more focused: at times, we find ourselves as spectators of the final moments of a party at Manhattan’s iconic Chelsea Hotel, where artists and thinkers of the roaring 70s and 80s were hosted in exchange for their art. However, the mood is strikingly different, more intimate and melancholic: bodies communicate with one another but do not touch. Are we lonelier than before? After Covid-19, geopolitical disruptions, and wars around the world, are we still standing? Are we still together?
Even the phrase ‘Art will save the world’, often attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky, is a mistake: the idea comes from a passage in the novel The Idiot, in which Prince Myškin says: ‘Beauty will save the world.’ And we, on the other hand, hope that it really will: we cannot feed ourselves with ephemeral, anaesthetising beauty, and who knows if even through the lightness of powerful brushstrokes, suspended over the Atlantic, we will manage to find the strength to fight again.
Michele Spinelli
