Text and photographs: Kaleidoskop Media
At the official opening of The Light of the Logos, an international juried exhibition of contemporary sacred art, held on 1 September at the Kolarac Endowment Gallery before an audience of more than 1,100 visitors, the recipients of four awards and eight honourable mentions were announced.
The honours were presented to artists whose works demonstrate exceptional artistic strength, originality of expression, harmony of colour and a fresh vision of contemporary sacred art. The exhibition brings together 124 icons by 103 artists from 18 countries and remains open until 16 September. It is organised by the Kaleidoskop Cultural Centre with the support of UNESCO through the International Fund for Cultural Diversity.
AWARDS
THE LIGHT OF THE LOGOS GRAND PRIZE
Antonina Sidneva (Russia, Greece)
Psalm 90
egg tempera on wood, 33 × 68 cm
Antonina Sidneva was born in Russia in 1957. After studying economics, she devoted herself to preserving Russian folk traditions, documenting the customs, songs and traditional dress of the Kaluga Region and creating art dolls inspired by this heritage. Following her move to Greece in 1997, she turned to Byzantine icon painting, which she has continued to refine since 2000, including in the studio of George Kordis. Her icons can be found in churches and private collections throughout Europe and North America, and she currently teaches icon painting in Athens.
AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN COLOUR HARMONY
Marija Antić
Emmanuel
encaustic, Ø 30 cm
Marija Antić lives a monastic life and creates within the Brotherhood of Saint Nicholas at Orahovica Monastery in Slavonia. She studied icon painting at Novo-Tikhvin Monastery in Yekaterinburg and through collaboration with Serbian icon painters. She has created numerous illustrations, including the series The Holy New Martyrs of Jasenovac in the Light of the Resurrection, which has been presented in Serbia and numerous countries across Europe and the world. She has participated in the painting of several churches and is also a member of the group decorating the chapel of the Holy Great Martyr Anastasia the Deliverer from Potions at Orahovica Monastery in the encaustic technique.
AWARD FOR ORIGINALITY IN ICON PAINTING
Alin Bogdan Pater (Romania)
Saint Simeon Stylites
egg tempera on glass, 50 × 50 cm
Alin Bogdan Pater was born in Arad, Romania, in 1986. He attended the Sabin Drăgoi High School of Arts before completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in restoration and conservation at the Faculty of Arts and Design of the West University of Timișoara. Following many years of work in sacred art, he became a certified church painter of the Romanian Patriarchate and has participated in the painting of churches in Romania and abroad. He is particularly dedicated to icon painting on glass, seeking to affirm this traditional technique as a fully developed contemporary artistic expression.
AWARD FOR A YOUNG SACRED ARTIST
Luka Šukilović
The Mandylion
egg tempera on wood panel, 30 × 30 cm
Luka Šukilović is a student at the Despot Stefan Lazarević Faculty.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Jelena Marković
The Battle of Kosovo
egg emulsion and pigment on linden wood panel with gilding, 135 × 45 cm
Jelena Marković was born in Lipljan in 1987. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 2010 and also gained professional experience as a curator and goldsmith. Her works are held in institutions and private collections in Serbia and abroad. Born into the Marjanović family of goldsmiths, she has adorned her icons with silver filigree since 2023, bringing together icon painting and goldsmithing as two arts deeply rooted in cultural and spiritual tradition.
Adela Alexe (Romania, Greece)
Saint Dumitru Stăniloae the Confessor
egg tempera on wood panel, 70 × 70 cm
Adela Alexe is a Romanian painter and iconographer who lives and works in Greece. She graduated in Decorative Arts from the National University of Arts in Bucharest in 2002 and pursued both practical and theoretical studies in icon painting under George Kordis. She is a member of professional artists’ associations in Greece and Romania and has spent two decades creating iconographic programmes for churches and works for private collections. Working in the traditional technique of egg tempera, she explores different surfaces and the restrained palette of ancient Greek tetrachromy, developing the distinctive chromatic freshness of her icons.
Renata Trifković
The Meeting of the Lord
mosaic on a Lebanese cedar trunk, 40 × 60 cm
Renata Trifković was born in Pula in 1976. She studied art history before completing postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, where she served as an assistant professor in the Department of Mosaic. As a long-standing associate of Centro Aletti in Rome, she participated in the creation of mosaics for approximately 300 Christian sacred sites across Europe and North and South America. She received an award at the Tenth Mosaic Biennial in Oplenac for her work The Holy Prophet Elijah, while her oeuvre encompasses both monumental mosaic compositions and intricate micromosaics.
Anđel Šević
Saint Stanko
egg tempera on wood panel, 20 × 20 cm
Anđel Šević was born in Inđija in 1989 and trained as an artistic jeweller. After attending the Tehnoart School in Belgrade, he worked in design and painting, and in 2020 completed an icon-painting course at the Academy of the Serbian Orthodox Church under Professor Mara Đurović and Aleksej Đermanović. Since 2021, he has run his own studio and has been actively engaged in icon painting, mural painting and restoration. He has participated in the exhibitions Portrait on an Icon and The Light of the Logos at the Kolarac Endowment.
Andreea Cebanu (Romania)
The Annunciation
egg tempera on wood panel, 29.7 × 42 cm
Andreea Cebanu was born in the Republic of Moldova in 2003 and is a third-year sacred art student at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology “Patriarch Justinian” of the University of Bucharest. Her interests encompass icon painting, medieval manuscript illumination and the Christian visual tradition. She has exhibited icons and artistic studies at the Gallery of the Society for Macedonian Studies in Thessaloniki, and in 2026 she was selected for the exhibition of the national competition Orthodox Icon, Light of Faith. She is also gaining practical experience in fresco painting, while her final thesis explores the development of the symbols of the Evangelists in medieval Western manuscript illumination.
Amy Dean (USA)
Saints Joachim and Anna
egg tempera on prepared panel, 25 × 48 cm
Amy Dean was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1978 and holds a bachelor’s degree in fine art. Her work draws on historical materials and techniques, including silverpoint, gold, mineral pigments and egg tempera. In her icon painting, she seeks to establish a connection between the depicted subject and the viewer, allowing the material to shape the image subtly, while her compositions combine reverence for tradition with inventiveness. In other works created on found paper and parchment, she explores art, religion, myth and human experience, establishing a dialogue between the ancient and the contemporary.
Jovana Janković
The Manifestation of the Power of God in Response to the Prayer of the Holy Prophet Isaiah and King Hezekiah
mixed media, 52 × 72 cm
Originally from Nova Varoš, Jovana Janković holds a master’s degree in fine art from the Academy of the Serbian Orthodox Church for Arts and Conservation in Belgrade. She has participated in numerous juried exhibitions in Serbia and abroad, as well as in the painting of parish and monastery churches throughout Serbia. She painted the altar apse and an icon for the episcopal throne at Pinosava Monastery and is also engaged in teaching through icon-painting classes. In 2025 and 2026, she held two solo exhibitions and created the icon of the Mother of God It Is Truly Meet for the throne of the Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah in Palić.
Siniša Trivić
Saint Luke the Confessor of Simferopol
egg tempera on wood panel, 20 × 27 cm
"Light of the Logos: Digital Networking, Education and Inclusion for the Sustainable Development of Contemporary Sacred Art" is a project supported by UNESCO under the International Fund for Cultural Diversity, in accordance with the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
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