From 6 October to 1 November, the National Museum of Modern Art presents Antipod, an exhibition by Duje Jurić, one of the most acclaimed Croatian painters working within the long and rich tradition of abstract geometric painting and the aesthetics of Neo-Constructivism. The exhibition on view at the Josip Račić Gallery curated by Branko Franceschi showcases appropriated clothing items: trench coats, jackets, shirts, vests, ties, hats, and shoes, which the artist has modified for his performances or out of pure creative joy by painting, printing, collaging, and adding objects – often painting tools—between the 1990s and today.
To consider Duje Jurić’s painted garments as an integral part of his oeuvre is to recognise the full extent of his creative engagement as a quintessential representative of his generation’s post-conceptual artistic discourse. In accordance with the libertarian principles of postmodernism, this discourse allowed artists to select and adapt their execution methods and styles in response to their immediate inspiration and creative purpose. The fact that he embarked on his multifaceted creative journey from easel painting, and has repeatedly returned to it after creative explorations prompted by questions of his own identity, makes him an exemplary answer to the question of what it means to be a painter in contemporary visual culture.
Branko Franceschi, from the exhibition catalogue

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. It is accompanied by a bilingual Croatian-English catalogue featuring a text by Branko Franceschi. The catalogue is designed by Ana Zubić.

Artist Biography
Duje Jurić was born on April 18, 1956, in Rupe near Skradin. He graduated in 1981 from the Painting Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, in the class of Professor Vasilije Jordan. Following his studies, he worked as an independent artist, and from 1984 onwards, he began holding solo exhibitions both at home and abroad.
He was a regular collaborator in the master workshops of Professors Ljubo Ivančić and Nikola Reiser from 1982 to 1985. In the late 1980s, he collaborated with Julije Knifer on the execution of murals in the southern French town of Sète (1989 and 1990, Villa Saint-Claire), as well as in Salzburg, Geneva, and Dijon – where, in 1991, he held his first solo exhibition abroad.
Alongside painting – his primary medium of artistic expression – Duje Jurić worked as an external collaborator at the Croatian Conservation Institute from 1977 to 1993. Between 1986 and 1988, he collaborated on projects with the “Kugla glumište” theatre troupe, working as a set designer and creating painting-based performances. For several months in 1991, he worked as an associate at Galerie Hoffman in Görbelheimer Mühle, near Frankfurt am Main. He has worked as a curator-conservator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb since 1999; since 2000, he has held positions at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb – serving successively as an assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor in the Department of Drawing and Painting – and in 2008, he became a mentor for the doctoral program in painting.
Stays in France, Germany, England, Italy, Albania, Spain, Poland, the USA, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovenia, and India have left a direct mark on his pro-fessional development and artistic expression.
Over the course of an artistic career spanning more than forty years, Jurić has held over eighty solo exhibitions and participated in more than one hundred and fifty group exhibitions, both at home and abroad. He is the creator of numerous artistic interventions and projects, most notably his environmental works (light installations) and works combining scenography with painting. Duje Jurić has received several prestigious awards for his artistic achievements, including the HDLU Award for Best Exhibition in 2002, the Vladimir Nazor Award (2002), and the Josip Račić Award (2010). His works are held in numerous public and private collections in Croatia and abroad

Reproductions: Photographs of the exhibits for the exhibition Antipod by Duje Jurić, with the participation of the artist, in the storage facility of the National Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb