The National Museum of Modern Art presents the exhibition „Linocut“ by Nevenka Arbanas at the Josip Račić Gallery from 5 to 29 March. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Ivana Rončević Elezović, Museum Advisor at the National Museum of Modern Art.

In the accompanying catalogue text, Ivana Rončević Elezović writes, among other things: (…) With the deliberately analogue tone of her latest exhibition title, „Linocut“, Arbanas foregrounds traditional printmaking techniques while engaging with a critical issue of contemporary life: the tension between human experience and the digital world. She emphasises the need for profoundly tangible, human encounters amid the relentless surge of virtualisation, evoking, in a sense, a contemporary Munchian scream in response to challenges such as the sudden rise of artificial intelligence. This body of work, and its presentation to the public, can also be read as a reflection on the dissonances of profound societal transitions that extend beyond technology, and as a quiet act of resistance by a modest exhibition confronting the unstoppable. It is at once a cry, a note of nostalgia, a recollection, and a sober acknowledgment of the world’s current state. (…)
The exhibition has been realized with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the City of Zagreb Office for Culture and Civil Society.

Nevenka Arbanas (b. 1950) was born in Batina, in Baranja. She graduated in printmaking from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1975 under Professor Albert Kinert, and in 1977 completed her Master’s degree in printmaking with the same mentor. She further specialized in printmaking techniques at Atelier 17 in Paris under Stanley William Hayter (1986) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the class of Ladislav Čepelák (1988).
Her work encompasses both monochrome and richly colored compositions, combining various printmaking techniques to achieve pronounced painterly effects. Her oeuvre is often interpreted as dissolving the boundaries between printmaking and painting, although her prints remain firmly grounded in the technical and material specificity of the graphic medium. She has participated in more than 200 group exhibitions and 60 solo exhibitions, as well as numerous international print exhibitions, biennials, and triennials, representing Croatian printmaking. She has published several print portfolios and bibliophile editions and is the author of the books Printmaking Techniques (1999) and Intaglio Printmaking Techniques (2015).
She taught at the School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where she served as Full Professor with tenure from 2012 until her retirement in 2017. In 2017 she earned a Doctorate in Arts. For her artistic achievements she has received numerous awards, including the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award (2018) and the Croatian Association of Artists (HDLU) Lifetime Achievement Award (2024). Her works are held in museum, gallery, and private collections in Croatia and abroad. In 2018, a major retrospective exhibition of her work was held at the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery in Zagreb.

Images: Nevenka Arbanas – from left to the right: (1) Child’s Last Breath, 2025., coloured linocut, 400x300 mm, paper  (2) Guest, 2025., coloured linocut, 400x300 mm, paper (3) You’re Not There, 2025., coloured linocut, 400x300 mm, paper, (4) Flicker, 2025., coloured linocut, 400x300 mm, paper.