Category: Past-Josip Racic

Matko Mijić, New Paintings

To 2 March, the Josip Račić Gallery presents an exhibition by Croatian sculptor Matko Mijić, featuring a series of paintings created using mixed media on canvas or wooden panels, each measuring 80 x 120 cm. These works were created after 2020 and the artist’s retrospective at the National Museum of Modern Art in 2018, curated by Margarita Sveštarov Šimat. For this retrospective, Mijić received the annual “Vladimir Nazor” Award for Visual and Applied Arts.
Curated by Branko Franceschi, director of the National Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue in Croatian and English, designed by Ana Zubić.

(…) These works were first showcased at the Kaštela City Museum in 2024 and are also featured in his most recent monograph, which was recently presented to a packed audience at the Cata Dujšin Gallery of the Trogir City Museum, a place where Mijić has lived and worked contentedly for decades. The paintings represent a fusion of the old and the new Mijić. The “new” in terms of his medium, as he is traditionally known as a sculptor, and the “old” in their motifs, which originate from the sculptural compositions that have long formed the basis of his sculptural practice. (…) – Branko Franceschi from the foreword in the exhibition catalogue

MATKO MIJIĆ (Split, 1955) spent his childhood in Milna on the island of Brač, where he finished elementary school. He graduated from the High School for Applied Arts in Split. In 1981, he obtained a degree in sculpture from the Faculty of Applied Arts inBelgrade. After his studies, he returned to Milna and lived there until he moved to Trogir in 1985. From 1984 he was a member of the Croatian Association of Freelance Artists until he started working at the Arts Academy of the University of Split in 2004, where today he is a tenured full professor. Since 1985 he has been living and working in Trogir, where he has created most of his oeuvre. He has been exhibiting independently since 1976 and has had 45 solo exhibitions to date: Forum Gallery, Zagreb – 1992 and 2007, Gallery of St. Krševan, Šibenik – 1995, 2009 and 2011, Klovićevi Dvori Gallery, Zagreb – 1998 and 2002, Museum of Fine Arts, Split – 2003, Günzburg 1995, Treviso/Venice 1999, Institute of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts – Milesi Palace, Split 2014, Ivo Kerdić Memorial, Osijek, 2016, National Museum of Modern Art, 2018)and more than 200 group exhibitions (Triennial of Croatian Sculpture continuously, Contemporary Croatian Sculpture 2009 – Vienna, Berlin, Bratislava, 2010 – Zagreb, Ljubljana, Trieste, Pécs; Art Medal World Congress, Sofia, 2014). Mijić’s works are part of the holdings of museum and private collections in Croatia and abroad: Museum of Contemporary Art in Dubrovnik, National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb, Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Museum of Fine Arts in Split, Museum of Fine Arts in Osijek.

The exhibition has been made possible with financial support from     

Photo: From the exhibition set up / Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Jelena Bando and Marija Ujević Galetović – Intersections

National Museum of Modern Art is set to open its 2025 exhibition season at the Josip Račić Gallery with the exhibition “Jelena Bando and Marija Ujević Galetović – Intersections,” organised in collaboration with Nomad – Croatian Office for Contemporary Art. After their initial presentation at the Frank Gallery in Vienna in November 2024, the works of these two Zagreb-based artists, representing different generations, are brought together in dialogue once more – this time at the Josip Račić Gallery in Zagreb. The exhibition include medium-sized oil paintings from the recent series (2023–2024) by academic painter Jelena Bando, alongside the acrylic on canvas titled “Supermici” (2004) and the bronze sculpture “You Silly Goat” (2015) by academic sculptor Marija Ujević Galetović. The latter has been specially loaned from a private family collection for this occasion. Art historian and exhibition curator Jelena Tamindžija Donnart describes the work as encapsulating the essence of one of Croatia’s most prominent sculptors, reflecting humour, sculptural precision, and a thoughtful cultural and philosophical message characteristic of her work.
(...) By positioning the two artists in a dialogue across different media, generations, and approaches, the aim is to create a unique experience that brings the legacy of one of Croatia’s most prolific sculptors to the forefront. (…) – notes Jelena Tamindžija Donnart in the bilingual exhibition catalogue.

The exhibition will be on view at the Josip Račić Gallery from 10 January to 2 February 2025.

JELENA BANDO
Jelena Bando is an academic painter who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2012. She has participated in study visits and residencies in Germany (Würzburg, Berlin, Leipzig), France (Paris), and Croatia (Kuberton). She has held around twenty solo exhibitions in various institutions,
including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Oris-House of Architecture in Zagreb, Ravnikar Gallery in Ljubljana, Museum of Modern Art in Dubrovnik, Fritzi Palace - Lošinj Museum in Mali Lošinj, Ring Gallery in Zagreb, Juste Gallery in Stockholm (Sweden), VN Gallery in Zagreb, Bravo
Gallery in Zagreb, Galženica Gallery in Velika Gorica, Greta Gallery in Zagreb, Nouvel Organon Gallery in Paris (France),and Ungeheuer Gallery in Berlin (Germany). Jelena Bando has received two awards for drawing and graphic arts (SKC Gallery, Belgrade; 15th Biennial of Drawing, Belgrade). She lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia.

MARIJA UJEVIĆ GALETOVIĆ
Marija Ujević Galetović, born in 1933 in Zagreb, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where she first obtained a degree in painting before pursuing further studies in sculpture. She made significant contributions to both sculpture and public art. In addition to paintings and graphic works, she also created sculptures that enriched public spaces. Among her most important public monuments are those dedicated to August Šenoa in Zagreb, Vlaho Paljetak in Zagreb, Miroslav Krleža in Opatija, Frane Petrić in Cres, Jakov Gotovac in Osor, Pope John Paul II in the Požega Cathedral crypt chapel,
and Juraj Križanić in Zagreb. These works are only a small selection of her vast body of work in sculpture and public art, which have significantly enriched Croatia’s cultural heritage. Her sculptures have become a vital part of the cultural landscape, noted for their originality, aesthetics, and profound cultural and philosophical messages. Her work continues to hold significance and remains an inspiration for new generations of artists, further enriching the nation’s cultural legacy.

Translated by Robertina Tomić

Images: 1 (left) (Exhibition Instalattion - Marija Ujević Galetović, Woman Goat, 2015 / bronze, 180 cm) Photo Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb (right) Jelena Bando 74, 2024 (detail) oil on canvas / 180 × 130 cm / Photo: Damir Žižić
2 Jelena Bando, 105, 2024 (detalj) oil on canvas / 180 × 130 cm / Photo: Damir Žižić
3 (left) Jelena Bando, 51, 2024. / oil on canvas / 180 × 130 cm Photo: Damir Žižić (right) Jelena Bando 99a, 2024 / 99 a, 2024./ oil on canvas / 180 × 130 cm / Photo: Damir Žižić

In Memory of Munir’s Pastorals or the World of Yesterday

Following the recent passing of the distinguished Croatian painter and printmaker Munir Vejzović (Doboj, 29 January 1945 – Zagreb, 29 September 2024), the National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb is organising a small, intimate exhibition titled “In Memory of Munir’s Pastorals or the World of Yesterday.” As a symbolic farewell to an artist who had a long history of collaboration with the National Museum of Modern Art and the Račić Gallery, this exhibition is staged at the Josip Račić Gallery and runs from 5 December 2024 to 5 January 2025.
Curator Iva Körbler, in the exhibition’s foreword, reflects on how Munir Vejzović’s work remains one of the most unique and distinctive painting and drawing legacies in modern Croatian art.
Munir’s ideas are embodied in motifs of nature, pastorals, drawing inspiration from ancient frescoes depicting bacchanalia that celebrate nature and life (Bacchanal, Circus, Pastorals). These works subtly echo, in a postmodern manner, the influence of various French modern painters from the early 20th century (Cézanne, Picasso, Vlaminck, Vuillard, Dufy, Bonnard, Chagall), yet remain unmistakably marked by the artist’s unique and authentic synthesis. Tonko Maroević points out that it was probably Professor Antun Mezdjić at the Zagreb Academy who conveyed to him “an exceptionally strict and methodical approach to morphology, in the tradition of Cézannism,” which is evident in the way Munir shapes the structure of his compositions. Building on a realistic base, the artist develops motifs and forms that evolve into a modern style and vocabulary, at times edging into surrealism and fantastic painting. Branko Franceschi, from the text in the exhibition catalogue

All the works for this exhibition have been loaned from the Biškupić Collection.
Munir Vejzović (Doboj, 1945 – Zagreb, 2024) was a Croatian painter, printmaker, and sculptor. He completed his primary education in his hometown and then studied painting at the School of Applied Arts in Sarajevo, under Mica Todorović and Vojo Dimitrijević. In 1965, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, focusing on painting and graphic arts, and studied under professors such as Ljubo Ivančić, Ivo Režek, Krsto Hegedušić, Vjekoslav Parać, and Antun Mezdjić. Additionally, he took an elective course in printmaking with Prof. Frane Baćo. He interrupted his third-year studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and moved to Paris, coinciding with the 1968 student protests. After having spent a year in Paris, he returned to Zagreb and graduated cum laude in 1970 in the class of Prof. Antun Mejzdić.
The following period marked a time of persistence in his métier, although he was obliged to work at several schools in Doboj. After a brief stay in his hometown, he returned to Zagreb. In 1977, he began teaching at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Zagreb, which would be his final teaching role. From then on, he worked exclusively as a freelance professional artist.
During multiple visits to Paris, he explored and absorbed much of the French modern art heritage by visiting various museums and galleries, including the Louvre, while also attending École des Beaux-Arts on an informal basis.
In 2009, an extensive monograph on Munir’s painting was penned by academician Tonko Maroević and Biserka Rauter Plančić, published by the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery and Art Magazine Kontura. His most recent major exhibition, “Embrace of Eroticism and Sculpture,” was organised at the National Museum of Modern Art (NMMU) in Zagreb in 2016, showcasing works selected by both academician Tonko Maroević and the artist himself. Munir’s works have garnered particular recognition from gallery owners and collectors in France and Italy, where he exhibited several times and cultivated a dedicated following.
His paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures are featured in the collections of all significant Croatian museums and galleries, as well as in private collections both in Croatia and abroad (France, Italy, Austria).
He received the Vladimir Nazor Award in 2008.

The exhibition has been made possible with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the Orbico Group.

Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Images: Munir Vejzović
(1) A Woman With a Fan, 1986, Kavana II, 1988
(2) Painter, 1987., Salome, 1986
(3) Suzana and the old men, Hommage a Tintoretto, 1987
(4) Fruit (and a tea pot), 1988
(5) Interieur, 1987
(6) Etruria, exhibition poster 1986, Masks, 1986
Photo Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Nenad Šaljić, Anthropocene I, (2019 – 2024)

From 8 October to 3 November, the National Museum of Modern Art will feature an exhibition titled Anthropocene I (2019–2024) by the internationally acclaimed and highly awarded photographer Nenad Šaljić at the Josip Račić Gallery. For the premiere presentation of this cycle to the Zagreb audience, Branko Franceschi, the museum director and curator of the exhibition, has selected a series of colour photographs taken by Šaljić between 2019 and 2023, with the Apple iPhone 7 Plus and Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, using the live photo – long exposure option, which he digitally post-produced this year. Concerning these works, Branko Franceschi writes: (...) In the introduction to his Anthropocene series, Šaljić discusses the anthropocentricity of the scientific interpretations of current climate changes. His artistic exploration of this concept centers on an image of the horizon line over the sea. The rising horizon line becomes the central narrative of the series, with the symbolic shifts in the colours of the sea and sky serving as the dominant compositional elements. The symbolic recreation of reality, coupled with a dystopian vision of its future, confronts us with a world of terrifying beauty – expressive and vivid, rather than the monotonous blue where sky and sea typically merge. We find ourselves not in the familiar landscapes of our home planet, but in an alien, inhospitable world of our own making.(...)

This visual artist, mountaineer and speleologist, has had his works included in various national and international collections, including the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Griffin Museum of Photography (USA), the Center for Fine Art Photography (USA), and the Museum of Arts and Crafts (Zagreb). He was born in 1961 in Sinj and currently lives and works between Split and Zermatt, Switzerland, at the foot of the Matterhorn, which is a perpetual source of inspiration for him. Šaljić received two prestigious awards in 2013 for his stunning photographs of the Matterhorn: the Sony World Photography Award and the first prize for best photography from National Geographic. Furthermore, one of the images from his Matterhorn series was showcased as part of Louis Vuitton’s autumn/winter 2013–14 men’s collection presentation during Fashion Week at the Grand Palais in Paris. During the same season, the Void photography series inspired the Saxony brand’s fashion collection in Australia. After completing his education in Split, where he earned a PhD in economic sciences, Nenad Šaljić fully committed himself to artistic photography in 2007, transitioning from a successful career in university teaching and business. He exhibits in Croatia and abroad, and is represented by Kunsträume - Heinz Julen Art Gallery (Zermatt, Switzerland) and Kranjčar Gallery (Zagreb).

The proclamation of the Anthropocene as the current geological epoch appears, at its core, to be an embodiment of human arrogance. It implies our species as the primary architect of geological epochs, overshadowing eons shaped by natural forces. This term, while inadvertently highlighting the darker side of our ambition, risks neglecting the intricate complexities of the planet’s history and hindering a humble, collaborative approach to our relationship with Earth. - Nenad Šaljić, 2024

Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Images: Nenad Šaljić Anthropocene I Cycle, 2019 – 2024 / Apple iPhone 7 Plus, Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, (Live Photo – Long Exposure)
Colour-graded photographs, Inkjet print on satin photo paper, 90 x 120 cm, mounted on KAPA® FIX foam board, black aluminium frame / Archival pigment ink prints on Hahnemühle Baryta paper 90 x 120 cm, / Edition 6 + 2 AP, 120 x 160 cm, / Edition 3 + 2 AP 150 x 200 cm, / Edition 3 + 2 AP

Nina Atević Murtić, A Dance of the Hand

From 10 September to 6 October, the National Museum of Modern Art presents an exhibition by Nina Atević Murtić, titled A Dance of the Hand, at the Josip Račić Gallery. This versatile artist showcases a new series of paintings, reaffirming her role as a dedicated advocate of abstraction in an era dominated by figurative easel painting. She has built her reputation on sophisticated, lyrical compositions, based on the articulation of the pictorial field through subtle transitions and relationships of intensity in the essentially transparent layers of paint.
In recent years, Nina Atević Murtić has increasingly turned her attention to the monochrome and a minimalist treatment of the painting’s content, relying on the fewest gestures possible, aiming for a single decisive stroke to resolve the composition. This method requires intense focus, mastery, and confidence from the artist, along with the capacity to engage with the irrational, transmental, and intuitive aspects of creativity. The exhibition is curated by Branko Franceschi, Director of the National Museum of Modern Art, who notes in the accompanying catalogue: Is painting a dance of the hand? I would argue that when a keen sense of colour aligns with disciplined motor skills, there is no more fitting description. And sometimes, it is as patently obvious as in Nina Atević Murtić’s recent paintings. Branko Franceschi, from the exhibition catalogue

Biography
Nina Atević Murtić was born in 1970 in Zagreb. After graduating from the Secondary School of Applied Arts and Design, she enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. After graduating from the Teaching Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in the class of Prof. Miroslav Šutej, she visited USA where she exhibited at several group exhibitions. After passing the remaining exams at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, she graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts. Upon her return to Zagreb, she was employed as an art director at the Heruc textile factory alongside Goran Lelas. Her work also includes participation in costume design projects, illustrating children’s books and art workshops. At the same time, she is working on projects of art design and equipping of hotels and interiors.
She has exhibited in private and public galleries and museums in Croatia (Studio Nest in Zagreb, Rovinj City Museum, Zabok City Gallery, Waldinger City Gallery in Osijek, Vladimir Bužančić Gallery of the Novi Zagreb Cultural Centre) and group projects abroad (“Croatian Artists” Gallerie Meneghello in Munich and “Miniscule” Gallery Oblong, curated by Vanya Balogh and Jim Racine in London. Since 2001, she has been collaborating with her husband Ranko Murtić on the project of the Zona Gallery, where she exhibited independently and at group exhibitions of Zona artists. Her works are in numerous private collections in Croatia.

Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Images: Nine Atević Murtić, Selection from the Open Cycle, 2023 — 2024 / pigment and acrylic binder on canvas 150 x 100 cm / 120 x 80 cm. / Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Damir Širola, Metamorphoses

From July 2nd to September 1st at the Josip Račić Gallery the National Museum of Modern Art presents an exhibition by Damir Širola named Metamorphoses. According to the concept of NMMU museum consultant and exhibition curator Željko Marciuš, about twenty photomontage collages from the artist's recent cycle of the same name were selected for the presentation. Among other things, Marciuš writes about Širola's new project in the preface of the bilingual accompanying catalog: (...) Širola’s new photographic project, Metamorphoses, consists of photomontage collages or layered photographs that create a new polarised image transcending realism into the supernatural and surreal, provoking the observer with skewed dreamscapes that paradoxically document (sur)realism through a combination of multiple cut-outs and cropped photographic prints. The driving idea is to explore the boundaries of accepting new photo-images previously unknown and impossible in reality, preserving experiential facts in time, space, and a (multi)meaningful duality based on projections for both the observer and the artist, marked by certain photographic anagrams and changes in the nervous system. This is the effect of cropped photographs whose original form disappears while simultaneously creating a new image, a new dynamic visual interplay in the constant flow of the observer’s gaze. Photographs for this series were produced through a rapid and tactile process of selecting parts, adjusting scales, utilising fields, and merging them into a new scene. Throughout the creative process, the artist minimises the use of Photoshop and other post-production tools to keep the idea and process of creating photographs visible. This approach avoids artificially manipulating the observer’s senses. All hybrid photographs are composedfrom parts of the artist’s previously captured images. (...)

Artist's Biography
Born in Zagreb in 1960, he has pursued photography since an early age. He has participated in around twenty group and club exhibitions and has organised eleven solo exhibitions in Zagreb and Varaždin. In addition to his own creative photography, he has produced numerous catalogues for other artists, covers and illustrations for about ten books, and technical documentation for industrial purposes. Since 2013, he has been living in Varaždin. He is a member of the Croatian Association of Visual Artists (HDLU) Varaždin and the Čakovec Art Association.

Photo: Damir Širola's hybrid photos from the Metamorphoses cycle, created during 2023 and 2024 from parts of the author's previously taken photos.

Zdravko Milić
Iapetusdrome

The exhibition of academic painter and graphic artist Zdravko Milić, showcasing his recent cycle of paintings executed in acrylic on canvas, titled Iapetusdrome, will be on view at the Josip Račić Gallery from 6 to 30 June. This new cycle builds upon his previous series titled Lunadrome and the artist’s enduring fascination with themes and motifs related to scientific discoveries and theories, and the realm of science fiction.
The paintings systematically depict the intricate topography of the specific surface and shape of Iapetus, one of Saturn’s satellites, also referred to as the Yin Yang moon. With a diameter of 1472 kilometres, Iapetus holds the distinction of being the outermost moon orbiting its parent planet within the Solar System. The planet’s bizarre shape and position have sparked popular theories suggesting it might be an artificial construct crafted by advanced extraterrestrial intelligence.
This bizarre world inspired Zdravko Milić to produce paintings infused with youthful energy and sensibility, yet executed with a mature technical skill. The atmosphere is surreal, heightened by hyperrealistic precision and clarity of execution. Indirectly, the cycle alludes to a particular trait of Milić’s generation, which, despite advancing age, remains connected to their youthful obsessions, evident not only in the theme but also in the illustrative style and concise narrative reminiscent of the comic book medium.
The curator of the exhibition, accompanied by a bilingual catalogue in Croatian and English, is Branko Franceschi, the director of the National Museum of Modern Art.

The exhibition has been made possible with financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the City of Zagreb

Artist’s biography
Zdravko Milić was born in 1953 in Labin. He graduated from the Applied Arts High School, Printmaking Department, in Split in 1973, and received his degree in painting in 1977 from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, in the class of Prof. Carmelo Zotti. He pursued further professional training in mosaic at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the class of Prof. Riccardo Licata (1988). From 1978 to 2006, he worked as a freelance artist. He is a member of the Croatian Association of Visual Artists (HDLU) in Rijeka and Zagreb. As a full professor, he taught Painting and Mosaic courses in the Academy of Applied Arts at the University of Rijeka. He has been exhibiting intensively since the early 1970s. He has held 103 solo exhibitions and participated in over 600 group exhibitions at home and abroad. He has participated in numerous international painting and sculpture symposiums and has received 65 awards and recognitions for his work. His works are kept in many significant private and public collections.

Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Reproductions: Zdravko Milić’s acrylics from his recent cycle Iapetusdrome. Photo: Zdravko Milić / Courtesy of the artist

In Anticipation of the Fiftieth Anniversary

 

Since its establishment in 1975, the Josip Račić Gallery in Zagreb has been an indispensable destination for artists and art enthusiasts. This small city gallery has been operating within the National Museum of Modern Art (formerly the Modern Gallery) since 1992, and next year it will celebrate five decades of its existence. As an introduction to this significant jubilee, the National Museum of Modern Art is organising the exhibition In Anticipation of the Fiftieth Anniversary from 9 May to 2 June 2024, at its well-known address at Margaretska 3.
Conceived as a historical overview of exhibition practices at the Gallery over the past fifty years, the exhibition conceived by art historian and NMMA curator, Tihana Galić, will provide visitors, through the selected works – largely drawn from the Museum collection and including pieces by a few artists who exhibited during this period – with insight into a fraction of the artistic heritage of this space and evoke memories of exhibitions and artists who have shaped its identity through various artistic approaches and thematic focuses. The selection of works is significantly constrained by the size of the exhibition space but nonetheless represents a substantial segment of its rich exhibition history.
The artists represented in the exhibition are: Zlatko Kauzlarić Atač, Vlado Jakelić, Jadranka Fatur, Marijana Muljević, Ivo Deković, Nicolas Roerich, Đuro Seder, and Stipan Tadić.
In addition to the exhibited artworks, visitors will have the opportunity to see some archival copies of accompanying publications from numerous exhibitions as well as documentary film "Jadranka Fatur, Paintings" by Hrvoje Juvančić, filmed in 1987 at the Josip Račić Gallery.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue in Croatian and English, designed by Ana Zubić and featuring an essay by the exhibition curator.

Translated by: Robertina Tomić

Images: Vlado Jakelić, Shoe Cleaners, 1977/ oil on canvas / 100 x 130 cm / MG-3932, National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Marijana Muljević, Marijana Muljević / Blades, 1991 / oil on canvas, 110 x 90 cm / MG-7003, National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Jadranka Fatur, Sister in Front of an Unfinished Painting,  1986. – 87 / oil on canvas , 150 x 120 cm / Artist’s private collection
Zlatko Kauzlarić Atač, Always on the Move, 1974 / oil on canvas, 110 x 130 cm / Artist’s private collection
- From the exhibition set up at the Josip Račić Gallery
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Staš Kleindienst, Antiarcadia

     

From 9 April to 5 May, the National Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with the “Božidar Jakac” Gallery from Kostanjevica na Krki, presents Staš Kleindienst’s exhibition Antiarcadia at the Josip Račić Gallery. Kleindienst is an artist who, according to Goran Milovanović, director of the “Božidar Jakac” Gallery and curator of the exhibition, is certainly at this moment one of the most prominent and intriguing painters of the middle generation in Slovenia. Ten works, consisting of oil paintings on canvas created between 2020 and 2024, have been selected for Staš Kleindienst’s first solo exhibition in front of the Zagreb audience, on loan for this occasion from public and private collections in Slovenia.

(...) What is it about Staš Kleindienst’s paintings that intrigues us so much? From a central vantage point in the gallery, enabling us to take in all the displayed artworks at once, we encounter certain familiar scenes that are ingrained in our memories. The landscapes gradually receding towards the horizon are intimate and familiar, and their appearance stirs a feeling of comfort and homeliness within us. Goran Milovanić, Goran Milovanović, from the text in the exhibition catalogue.Perhaps it is precisely this moment, referred to as “our expression,” that Ljubo Babić sought in the landscapes of Croatian Zagorje and Dalmatia. But that is certainly not Kleindienst’s concept, who always adds small formats to the exhibition installations of large-scale paintings, where the visualizations of stories are even more condensed, drawing us in with a certain magnetism.

Staš Kleindienst’s exhibition titled Antiarcadia is a continuation of the successful international museum collaboration between the National Museum of Modern Art and the “Božidar Jakac” Gallery which began in 2021 with the exhibition Ties That Bind – Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and Slovenian Artists Between the Two Wars.

Biography
Staš Kleindienst graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 2007, where he also defended his MA in 2009. His works can be found in a number of private and public collections. In 2014 he received an award from the OHO group, the University of Ljubljana awarded him the 2019 Recognition of Significant Works of Art. He received Rihard Jakopič award for 2023. He lives and works in Vipava.

The exhibition was realized through the collaboration of the National Museum of Modern Art and Božidar Jakac Art Museum with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the City of Zagreb

Translated by: Robertina Tomić

Images:
Staš Kleindienst, Spring on the Plateau, 2024, ulje na platnu / oil on canvas / 85 x 110 cm courtesy of the artist / Photo Staš Kleindienst
Evening Rehearsal, 2020 / oil on canvas / 130 x 200 cm / City Museum of Ljubljana (MGML) / Photo Staš Kleindienst
Winter Landscape, 2021 /oil on canvas / 120 x 160 cm / Galerija Božidar Jakac – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art / Fototeka GBJ, Photo Jaka Babnik
Road Painting, 2023 / oil on canvas / 110 x 85 cm / private collection / Photo: foto Staš Kleindienst

Predrag Todorović, Paintings 2023 – 2024

From 14 March to 7 April, the National Museum of Modern Art presents, at the Josip Račić Gallery, an exhibition of Predrag Todorović called Paintings 2023 - 2024. where the artist presents himself with six recent large format works in mixed media. In the text of the accompanying bilingual catalog of the exhibition, which was graphically designed by Ana Zubić, Klaudio Štefančić, senior curator of the NMMU and the head of the Collection of Watercolors, Drawings and Graphics and the Collection of New Media NMMU among other things, writes: Unlike the mainstream of postmodern art, Todorović quotes without irony or distance. Moreover, his explanations of his own work are often cautious formulations in search of authentic experience. Other statements, in turn, openly invoke a metaphysical subtext of art. It is unclear whether Todorović’s engagement with the past takes the form of intertextuality or pastiche. What is clear, however, is that in the second half of the 1990s, Todorović moves away from the dominant line of postmodern painting. Although reduced to the very basics of modernist aesthetics (What is a painting? A symbolic surface framed by a real or institutional framework), Todorović’s paintings and drawings are not non-expressive. Their expressiveness does not lie in the colourful and symbolically chaotic painting of the 1980s but rather in the legacy of Abstract Expressionism on the one hand, and in the practice of critiquing that legacy by Conceptual art on the other. Instead of painting, by creating ambiguous representations, Todorović has chosen to scratch or cast the painting. Instead of narrating, he has decided to seek, first an existential and then a metaphysical foothold, in painting.
This prominent artist, who lives and works in Zagreb, was born in 1966 in Drvar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), received his BFA from the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Rijeka, in 1990, where he majored in Painting. He has so far exhibited his works at more than 50 independent and numerous collective, juried and selected exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. His works are represented in the holdings ofthe Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb and the National and University Library in Zagreb, as well as in numerous private collections both at home and abroad. He is a recipient of several awards and recognitions and also participated in two Artist-in-Residence programs, in Cairo (1997) and in Paris (2016). He lives and works in Zagreb.

The complete text of Klaudio Štefančić from the accompanying catalog:Klaudio Štefančić - Random Scenes as Signals of a Higher Order
Photo: Tanja Tevih © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2024.