Matko Vekić (born 1970 in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Sl ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

) is a contemporary Croatian artist working in the medium of painting. He has been described as one of the most prominent Croatian painters of the younger generation. Vekić uses diverse everyday motifs (cars, a rat and a goldfish, insects, traffic interchanges and bridges, relays and transmission lines, women terrorists and body builders, football players and models) to problematise and address the irony the state of contemporary society.

Education and early career

Matko Vekić was born on 6 November 1970 in Zagreb, Croatia. He graduated in painting from the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

in Zagreb in 1995, in the class of Professor Đuro Seder.

Career as a teacher

From 1996 to 1999 he worked as a lecturer of drawing and painting at the School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb, and from 1999 to 2003 he was a teaching assistant (later assistant professor) at the Academy of Fine Arts in

Široki Brijeg , , nickname = , motto = , image_map = BiH municipality location Široki Brijeg.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location o ...

University of Mostar The University of Mostar ( hr, Sveučilište u Mostaru; la, Universitas Studiorum Mostariensis) is the largest public university located in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Previously it was called the University Džemal Bijedić of Mostar, n ...

. From 2007 he has been an assistant professor at the

Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb The Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb ( hr, Akademija likovnih umjetnosti u Zagrebu or ALU) is a Croatian art school based in Zagreb. It is one of the three art academies affiliated with the University of Zagreb, along with the Academy of Dramatic Art, ...

and the Associate Professor from 2011 at the

Creative work and awards

As of 2008, he has had 32 solo exhibitions in Croatia and abroad, including Gallery Nova (Zagreb, 1996), Art Gallery (Split, 2003) and Art Pavilion (Zagreb, 2005). Together with and Zoltan Novak, he was the Croatian representative at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 2009. His works belong to many museum and gallery collections, including the Modern Gallery in Zagreb and Gallery of Fine Arts in Split, where they are on permanent display. For his artistic work he has received over a dozen awards and recognitions, including the annual Filip Trade Award (Zagreb, 2003) and the annual Croatian Association of Artists for Young Painters (Zagreb, 2002). He was also awarded with the annual Croatian Artists Association award, Lissone in 2001, Premio Lissone in 2003, at the 10th and the 12th International Cairo Biennale in 2006 and 2010.Matko Vekić
Retrieved on 22 Feb 2018 He is a member of the Association of Artists and the Croatian Freelance Artists' Association. He lives in Zagreb.

Published works on Matko Vekić

*Prelog, Petar - ''Matko Vekić'' (Fraktura, Zaprešić, 2005). *Ed. Vuković, Radovan – ''Matko Vekić: the Animal Circle, the Zodiac Circle'', (exh. cat, Art Pavilion, Zagreb, 15/2/2005). *Ed. Kralj, Ariana – ''Matko Vekić: Symbol, Sign, Emblem, Ornament and Crime'', (exh. cat,

Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica, hr, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, abbrev. HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under patronage of the Croatian bishop Jo ...

, June 2008). *Ed. Gottwald, Gaella A. – ''Matko Vekić: Okrutnost Kruga'', (exh. cat, HDLU, Zagreb, October 2010).

Notes and references

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vekic, Matko Croatian painters Croatian contemporary artists 1970 births Artists from Zagreb Living people