izv. prof. dr. art. Igor Čabraja

He was born in 1976 in Slavonski Brod. He graduated from the Mathematical Gymnasium in 1994 in his hometown. In 2001, he enrolled in the study of fine arts at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka, and in the following academic year (2002/03) he moved to the Teaching Department of the Academy of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 2006 in the class of Prof. Dubravka Babić. He worked as an external associate as an assistant at the Department of Fine Arts of the Academy of Arts in Osijek for another three years, and in the same period, as an artistic associate at the Teaching Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. For a year (2009/10) he taught art at the Blaž Tadijanović Elementary School in Podvinje in Slavonski Brod. Since 2010, he has been employed as an assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he still works as an associate professor. In December 2020, by defending his doctoral dissertation entitled "Debris", he completed his postgraduate doctoral study of graphics under the mentorship of red. prof. art. Ines Krasić. He began exhibiting during his studies (2004), and thanks to his notable and award-winning performance at the 4. Croatian Triennial of Printmaking, in 2006 he made his debut with the solo exhibition "Interferences" in the Studio of the Cabinet of Graphics of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In his artistic activity so far, he has exhibited at about twenty solo and over forty domestic and international group exhibitions, among which his participation in the International Triennial of Printmaking (Międzynarodowe Triennale Grafiki; International Print Triennial) organized by the Polish organization of the same name in Krakow stands out. He won the Premium of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (2012) at the 6. Croatian Triennial of Printmaking. His works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, the Museum of Brod Posavlje in Slavonski Brod and the Cabinet of Graphics of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb. He is a member of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists (HDLU) in Zagreb.

Traditional graphics in contemporary art practice; the expanded field of printmaking; technological processes of traditional graphic techniques in combination with other techniques and technologies; the relationship between the original role of the graphic medium (reproduction, duplication) and contemporary artistic practice. The first research, primarily in intaglio drawing techniques (etching, drypoint), refers to the possibilities of the matrix in the technical sense – repetition and/or rotation of the matrix in the same frame ("Interferences"). This is followed by works realized in aquatint, also with an unconventional approach to framing and printing (matrix rotations, perforated surfaces), and resulting in a cycle called "Oil". In the following works, the units are defragmented, made up of tens or hundreds of parts – graphic sheets. This principle extends from the work entitled "Flies – fifty prints with a fly print in a randomly selected part of the frame", through "Inventory of Memories" where motifs of the contents of a standard family home are printed in blind print (seventy-five sheets later organized into an artist's book), to "Shards" – a work consisting of one hundred and twenty prints in the technique of photo-transfer and aquatint, with the theme of the unreliability of human memory. In the periods between these works, many technically and thematically similar works were realized, most often defragmentations ("Interferences 2", "Untitled", "Mars"), collaborations with other authors (Rožman and Čabraja – "Dialogue"), as well as many others, but the above works illustrate the path from research in the field of technology and testing the boundaries of the traditional graphic medium in the technical sense, to thematically more complex units and research that continue to this day.

Graphics and Applied Graphics 2 (3rd year of undergraduate study of Fine Arts) Intaglio printing graphic techniques – technological processes from idea to realization (from idea to printed graphic sheet) Graphics and Applied Graphics 1/DN and 2/DN (1st and 2nd year of graduate study of Fine Arts) Expanding the basic knowledge and skills of graphic technology, developing personal concepts

2024 – "MIR", 9. Croatian Triennial of Printmaking, Klovićevi dvori, Zagreb; 2024 – "In situ", Nova Gradiška City Museum 2021 – "Dialogue", Maja Rožman and Igor Čabraja, VN Gallery, Zagreb (2023. Maja Rožman and Igor Čabraja, Kazamat Gallery, Osijek) 2019 – "Interferences 2/ Landscape Spaces", curatorial concept by Igor Loinjak and Domagoj Sušac, Prsten Gallery, HDLU House, Zagreb 2015 – "Album", graphic folder, Cabinet of Graphics of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb 2015 – "Shards", Cabinet of Graphics of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb 2014 – "Reflections" (Mario Čaušić and Igor Čabraja), VN Gallery, Zagreb 2012 – "Untitled", 6. Croatian Triennial of Graphic Arts, Zagreb 2009 – "Oil", Ružić Gallery, Slavonski Brod 2008 – "Inventory of Memories", SC Gallery, Zagreb 2008 – "The Flies" (Ivan Tudek, Igor Čabraja), Vladimir Bužančić Gallery, Zagreb)