Snježana Ban, Nina Ivančić, Mihael Klanjčić, Damir Sokić, Ljerka Šibenik: The Life of Finely Tuned Forms

Snježana Ban, Nina Ivančić, Mihael Klanjčić, Damir Sokić, Ljerka Šibenik: The Life of Finely Tuned Forms
17 February–22 March 2023
MMC KIBLA / KiBela

We are pleased to invite you to the opening of the exhibition The Life of Finely Tuned Forms, which will take place on Friday, 17 February 2023, at 7 p.m. in KiBela Art Space.

INVITATION (PDF)
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION (PDF)

Curated by Kranjčar Gallery from Zagreb, the exhibition weaves into a coherent visual whole the works of five Croatian artists of different generations. Ljerka Šibenik formed her artistic sensibility just before and after the legendary year of 1968, Damir Sokić and Nina Ivančić matured artistically around the turn of the eighties of the previous century, Snježana Ban at the end of the second decade of this century and Mihael Klanjčić at the very beginning of its third decade.

At first sight, the exhibited works have entirely different formal and spatial-performative characteristics. The cohesive logic of the exhibition as a whole, however, cannot be grasped using the traditional formal-analytical approach – or the rigid genre classifications and definitions. Each of the exhibited works is unmistakably marked with constructive reflection, which, however, never cuts into their unique poetic aura. The common thread running through this selection of works is the extraordinary imaginative rationalism displayed by their authors.

The five artistic languages, five different approaches to using materials and media – be it drawing, painting, sculpture, installation or action – are dynamically intertwined in a series of images and objects in space to create a coherent unit that is able to absorb individual themes and breathe with them through individual forms. Taking us from black and white to color, from abstraction to the concrete, from engagement to playfulness, the presented artworks are created in line with the basic principles of modernist art but are at the same time also upgraded with topical messages and meanings, which are delivered in a critical or ironic way and through visual, social or wider contexts.

Snježana Ban was born in Zagreb in 1980. In 2007, she graduated from the Department of Art Education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, in the class of Prof. Ante Rašić, and in 2008 from the Faculty of Textile Technology in Zagreb, majoring in fashion design. She received her PhD from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2019. Since 2007, she has been employed at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Department of Art Education. She has presented her work in ten solo exhibitions and in a number of group and thematic exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. She is the author of the book Doubt as Creative Potential in Contemporary Art (2021), published by the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. She was awarded the Grand Prize at the 28th Youth Salon in Zagreb and the 2nd prize presented by the Erste bank (2006).

Nina Ivančić was born in Zagreb in 1953. In 1977, she graduated with a degree in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb under Prof. Šime Perić. In 1979, she attended a painting masterclass in Zagreb under professors Ljubo Ivančić and Nikola Reiser. In 1987, she received a Fulbright painting scholarship and attended an MFA Program in Painting at the Columbia University in New York. From 1986 to 1993, she lived and worked in New York. Since 1999, she has been teaching at the Academy of Arts in Split. She lives and works in Zagreb, Split and Brač. Since 1979, Nina Ivančić has held numerous solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. Her artistic activity is accompanied by a large number of bibliographic units and has garnered several awards. Her works are kept in private and public collections in Croatia and abroad.

Mihael Klanjčić was born in Zagreb in 1994. In 2019, he graduated with a degree in painting at the Department of Art Education of the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, under Prof. Damir Sokić. He has had seven solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions, among others in the 57th Zagreb Salon, (Croatian Association of Visual Artists (HDLU)), 35th Youth Salon Zagreb, (Croatian Association of Visual Artists), 16th Erste Fragments (Lauba), group exhibitions In the Summer Code (Kranjčar Gallery) and Art Is Doubt (LEXART Skladište), 14th Erste Fragments (Kranjčar Gallery). He lives and works in Zagreb.

Damir Sokić was born in Nova Gradiška in 1952. In 1977, he graduated with a degree in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. From 1977 to 1979, he attended a painting masterclass under professors Ljubo Ivančić and Nikola Reiser. Between 1986 and 1993, he lived and worked in New York. From 1999 to 2019, he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. In 2018, he received a PhD from the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Zagreb. Damir Sokić has been exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad since the mid 1970s. His artistic activity is accompanied by a large number of bibliographic units and has garnered several awards (including the annual Vladimir Nazor Award in 2014). His works are kept in private and public collections in Croatia and abroad. He lives and works in Zagreb.

Ljerka Šibenik was born in 1935 in Zagreb, where she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1962. From 1962 to 1964, she attended the master workshop led by Krsto Hegedušić. In the period from 1975 to 2003, she was the manager of the Nova Gallery, where she represented young artists inclined towards avant-garde experimentalism as well as artists of the older generation whose work was committed to artistic innovation. A member of the second generation of Croatian avant-garde artists, Ljerka Šibenik explored complex structures and environments (Black Object 2, 1968), at the same time producing intensely colored objects with minimalist forms (Mini relief, 1968).

< Nina Ivančić, Thomas Morse Scout S-4C, 1917, USA, 2008, charcoal on paper.

MMC KIBLA / KiBela, Ulica kneza Koclja 9, Maribor
Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.