Exibitions

Ćeran, Grbašić, Ribić – An Exhibition of Illustrations
minus 35 – An Exhibition of Illustrations of Young Croatian Illustrators
Puppet in illustration
Exhibition of foreign guests’ illustrations
Illustrations exhibition



Ćeran, Grbašić, Ribić – An Exhibition of Illustrations

‘Recent uplift of domestic publishing, easy approach to new media and an easily established connection with foreign markets have enabled an ever increasing number of illustrators to present their work. In an abundance of visual approaches and styles it is easy to notice familiar contemporary trends of painting expressions, especially pervasive approaches to painting.

At the same time, only a few authors nourish a neglected and somewhat despised realistic approach. This approach, that above all else requires of its author to be extremely well-skilled, is best represented in the works of three authors: Grbašić, Ribić and Ćeran. Of different generations, acting within different genres, and on different markets, what these three authors have in common, besides realism/naturalism in their works, is romanticism and fantasy as the starting point and motive for creating.

From historical documentarian reconstructions (Grbašić), through savage SF and horror fantasies (Ribić), poetics of fantasy and legends (Ćeran), one can recognize in the works of these authors a quest for the atmosphere of lost times, as well as a desire to create new and different worlds. Realism is therefore that logical medium that gives these invented spaces credibility and makes them close and recognizable to the reader. Within the confines of the aforementioned common worldview, each of these authors managed to develop a personal artistic style: Grbašić tends to take a ‘photograph’ of a certain moment, person or a thing that have ceased to exist a long time ago, Ribić uses fierce composition and gesture to bring to life creatures and artefacts of mystical attributes and materials within the worlds of some new mythologies, and Ćeran presents us with his fluid fantastic and fairytale landscapes through his meticulous and soft strokes…

These authors’ illustrations, made with expertise, rich in detail and often having very complex compositions restore and continue in a best possible way the almost extinguished tradition of domestic realistic illustration from the times of Vladimir Kirin and Andrija Maurović.’

Dušan Gačić



minus 35 – An Exhibition of Illustrations of Young Croatian Illustrators

An Exhibition of Illustrations of Young Croatian Illustrators

It could be said that none of the visual arts is as much defined by the demands beyond art and the mediatorship in communication as the illustration is. Being related to the text/message it conveys, the illustration depends on it and can hardly be separated from it, which turns any exhibition of illustrations into an unfinished job to a certain extent. Namely, the exhibition of the illustration makes the illustration lose its integrity as it is based on the co-relation between the picture and the text, which leaves us struggling with our own contradiction. These are the reasons why the illustration has frequently been neglected by the history of art. In Croatia, for instance, despite a list of excellent and award-winning illustrators, it has been marginalised for a long time. However, a recently awoken professional interest has resulted in first exhibitions of illustrations at the largest Croatian book fair – Interliber, and the first Catalogue of Croatian Illustrators, organised by the ULUPUH - Croatian Association of Artists of Applied Arts, as the umbrella association of applied arts. Therefore, with the joy of hospitality, we introduce the youngest generation of our illustrators to foreign public.



Puppet in illustration and animated film

‘Puppet, a three-dimensional figure of a human or another living being, moved by a person, has appeared in art since its earliest beginnings, pliable to embody all of our spectres, gods, monsters and heroes with its fantastic shapes and movements. And while its original environment is the stage of a puppet theatre, it has stepped into other media a long time ago enriching them with its specific expressive potential. In the last couple of years in Croatia, several authors have recognized specific qualities of puppets, qualities that they could not achieve in their ‘primary’ medium, and have decided to use puppets in their achievements – illustrations and animated films. Zdenko Bašić, Tomislav Gregl, Marijana Jelić, Davor Međurečan, Tihana Ostreš and David Peroš Bonnot have each, in their own specific way, used puppets in their work, independently or by collaborating with other authors. The exhibition reveals, through their different approaches and interpretations of puppets, some qualities that have not been recognized, especially in regard with digital technology that is, today, a more seductive (easier) alternative.’

(Maša Štrbac, curator of the exhibition)

The exhibition will display puppets and illustrations or animated films that use puppets.