The Balance of Everything

Ali Beletic’s Neon Primitivism series is a vivid extension of her commitment to primitivist ideology—and to “bringing the party and the fun.” In this new body of work, the canvas becomes a site for channeling sensuality, emotion, and ancestral energy, in a modern return to Abstract Expressionism. Beletic combines the ultra-matte texture of her signature clay-based paints with ancient pigments—botanical dyes, crushed semi-precious stones, burned wood—layered alongside postmodern materials like spray paint and oil. Evoking cave paintings, ceremonial body art, the New York School, pop, and the weathered intimacy of artifacts, the work draws a line from Charles Olson’s “Archaic Postmodern” to a contemporary aesthetic that celebrates simultaneity—where the archaic and the modern exist side by side, alive with rhythm and intensity.