From July 8 to August 29, the Josip Račić Gallery will host a solo exhibition by Iva Zagoda titled Zapis 245. The exhibition is presented by the National Museum of Modern Art as an award for Best Young Artist at the 7th Painting Biennial. Curated by NMMU’s Marta Radman, the show features ten recent works by the award-winning Zagreb-based visual artist. Zagoda graduated in 2019 from the Teaching Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, in the class of Damir Sokić. She has previously exhibited in seven solo and around ten group exhibitions.
The selected paintings and sculptures continue the artist’s exploration of the relationship between line, gesture, and fields of color in easel painting, as well as the interplay of everyday materials and color in sculpture. Rooted in the aesthetics of minimalism, the compositions emerge from a limited number of visual elements on a blank canvas. This same approach is reflected in the gallery space itself, through the careful balance of paintings and sculptures.
(...) In a manner similar to James Meyer’s concept of the “minimalist unconscious,” Zagoda approaches emptiness not as a void but as a place of tension.
What is suppressed does not disappear; it remains present – unspoken, yet active. Her paintings are silent not because they have nothing to say,
but because they maintain a tension that the surface only appears to ease. Gesture in her work is not a form but a measure of time, a trace that unfolds
in the rhythm of observation and the awareness of one’s own position. This relationship does not develop in a linear fashion, but through subtle shifts,
repeated observation, and a continual flickering. The intellectual clarity is perfectly balanced with emotional depth, which is what makes her work so
compelling. Like someone who speaks sparingly yet always finds the right tone, Iva skilfully avoids excess and creates a powerful sense of presence.
Rather than constructing an illusion of meaning, she establishes the conditions for its oscillation. - Marta Radman, from the text in the accompanying bilingual Croatian-English catalogue, designed by Ana Zubić.

The exhibition has been made possible with financial support from the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the City Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb.

An artist biography
Iva Zagoda (Zagreb, 1992) earned a degree from the Teacher Education Department at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, in the class of Professor Damir Sokić in 2019. She has held seven solo and around ten group exhibitions. She is the recipient of the Grand Prix at the 16th Erste Fragments, the Award of the 7th Painting Biennial, and the National Museum of Modern Art Award for a Young Artist, granted at the same biennial. She lives
and works in Zagreb.

Images: Iva Zagoda,Record_24, 2024./ tripod, plastic, metal, sponge, glass / height: 190 cm; Sketch_4, 2025. / mixed media on canvas / 60 x 80 cm; / Sketch_2, 2025. / mixed media on canvas, 60 × 80 cm
Cover Image: Iva Zagoda, Sketch_5, 2025. / mixed media on canvas, 60 × 80 cm Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb