'Het Konijn'.
Sasha Jovanovich (Saša Jovanović) is an Amsterdam-based Serbian artist, who works in several artistic disciplines. In late 2019 he made his debut as a comic author with the dystopian graphic novel 'Het Konijn'.
Early life and career
Jovanovich was born in 1963 in a small coastal town in Croatia, and got his artistic education in Belgrade at the Architectural College and Academy of Applied Arts. With the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars in 1992-1995, Jovanovich decided to finish his studies abroad. He ended up in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where he enrolled at the Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy of fine arts and design. He graduated in 1993. As the conflicts in his home country lasted throughout the decade, he decided to stay in the Netherlands. He held several odd jobs, from cleaner to advertising man. With Joost Baardman and Dragan Aleksic he ran the JAB Studio (1994-2000), an avant-garde funerary art studio, and later also worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, reading witness statements.
A futuristic Amsterdam in 'Het Konijn'.
The Rabbit
In his spare time, Jovanovich has been making art for his own amusement. He took it to himself to produce at least one work in each art form and technique. He has made drawings, etchings, paintings and sculptures (both abstract and realistic), conceptual art, writing and music. His conceptual art has been exhibited in the Netherlands, Germany, Serbia and Great Britain. He started creating digital art in the mid-1990s. His concept 'The Rabbit' was at the same time a comic and a substitute for a movie that he's never going to make because of budgetary reasons. The science fiction story is a combination of Jovanovich' love for comics, sci-fi and Amsterdam, but also his disgust for wars and the dirty corporations that tend to start them. Jovanovich crafted his own universe against the back story of an 18th century orphan boy who becomes a murderer and takes revenge on the world in a dystopian future. The narrative however proceeds in an abstract way through dynamic drawings and moody coloring, reminiscent of Mike Mignola and Moebius. The graphic novel was eventually published to much critical acclaim by Scratch Books under the title 'Het Konijn' in November 2019.
Sasha Jovanovic signed his graphic novel 'Het Konijn' in comics shop Lambiek on 6 December 2019.