Josip Rončević

He was born in Zadar in 1991. He graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts in Zagreb in 2015, and in 2020 he graduated with honors from the painting department of the Academy of Fine Arts in the Latin classification summa cum laude. He has exhibited at ten solo exhibitions (Build a Ship, MH Gallery; The Effects of Spring Cleaning, SC Gallery; Radio Days, Karas Gallery; Illusions, PM Gallery, HDLU) and about thirty group exhibitions, of which the Game of Sport and Art (HDLU, Zagreb), Erste Fragments 16 (Lauba, Zagreb) and the 35th Youth Salon (HDLU, Zagreb) can be highlighted, where he was co-awarded the "Iva Vraneković Award – Vladimir Dodig Trokut, Artists to Artists". He is a finalist of the Radoslav Putar Award for 2023.

The effort to ensure that painting itself, and not what is depicted by it, remains the main theme of the painting, is a principle that I set as the foundation of my work. The starting motifs for paintings are often those in which I notice that painting procedures, principles and processes are already present, so painting (and in a broader sense, painting practice) only has the task of affirming them, that is, articulating them through the image. Within the painter's statement, I find interesting the space between the terms "to say" and "to show", where there is a layering of meaning, which often results in a kind of polarized whole, often with the sub-question of whether we approach such a work of art as viewers or as readers, and whether and which part of that whole can (conditionally speaking) be trusted. I would describe my procedure as that of a painter-essayist who, with the requirement to mature within the painter's expression, is guided by the principle: painting yes, but painting above all.

Students of the first two years of study master basic drawing and painting skills through teaching, which are developed through observational work. With the acquired skills and experience gained through the process of art cultivation, they prepare for further study and participation in courses based on drawing and painting, which provides them with a basis for active participation in the art and cultural community.

2024 – "Illusions", PM Gallery, Meštrović Pavilion, Zagreb 2023 – Radoslav Putar Award Finals, Salon Galić, Split 2022 – "Radio Days", Karas Gallery, Zagreb 2022 – "Effects of Spring Tidying Up", SC Gallery, Zagreb 2021 – "Build a Ship", Gallery of Matica hrvatske, Zagreb 2020. – 35. Youth Salon, House of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists, Zagreb 2020 – "Erste fragments 16", Lauba, Zagreb