Vladimir Novak

Vladimir Novak is a sculptor and multimedia artist born in 1987 in Zagreb. He graduated in 2017 from the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and in 2023 he enrolled in the Doctoral Study of Fine Arts. He began teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in 2022 as an external associate, and since 2024 he has been employed at the Department of Sculpture.

He has received numerous awards for his artistic work so far; In 2018, the HPB Grand Prix at the 34. Youth Salon - Panoptikon and the GKR Lokve Award at the XIII. Triennial of Croatian Sculpture, and in 2025 the Radoslav Putar Award (Young Visual Artist Award), Grand Prix, HS AICA and Kontrapunkt Award Iva Vraneković_Vladimir Dodig Trokut at the 60. Zagreb Salon of Visual Arts; Equivalent award at the 47. Montenegrin Art Salon; Iuvenes Futurum Award for Young Artists and Scientists by the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.

In my artistic practice, I explore the possibilities of sculpture whose presence is not primarily based on a stable material object. I start from space, body and perception, exploring how light, sound, vibration, movement and similar physical processes can become carriers of sculptural experience. I am interested in what happens when materiality is reduced and the action of work is shifted towards temporary, changeable or barely perceptible phenomena.

I do not understand the invisible as something hidden that needs to be revealed, but as an active part of experience. Sound, light and vibration work through the relationships between matter, architecture and the body, often beyond the possibility of being directly encompassed by the gaze. It is precisely the areas between the visible, the audible and the bodily that interest me as a space of sculptural activity.

I conceive the works as systems and spatial conditions whose occurrence is not completely determined in advance. Architecture is not a neutral background, and the visitor is not an isolated observer. His presence, position, movement and touch can participate in the shaping of the work. That is why I understand interactivity as a relationship, not as an effect. Perception is not a passive reception of already formed reality, but an active process in which space, body and the perceived are mutually determined.

I use technology as a means of registering, translating and amplifying physical phenomena, not as a substitute for them. It allows almost imperceptible processes to acquire perceptual intensity, where silence, rest and the absence of visible activity are just as important as the moments of their pronounced appearance.

Therefore, I see sculpture less as an object and more as a field of relationships and potential events. Its form is not exhausted in the material structure, but is constantly re-established through the changing relationships of space, time, perception and presence.

Free form 2 and 3 – a departure from the work by observation with the aim of establishing strategies and tools for free reflection, conception and production of works on given topics in the material.

Sculpture1/AFNM – introduction to basic sculptural methods, principles and concepts such as space, volume shaping, positive-negative principle, and training to work in traditional and contemporary sculptural materials.

Free Form 2.

Free form 3.

Sculpture1/AFNM

2026 - ''Maybe Nothing'', Pogon Jedinstvo, Gallery 90-60-90, Zagreb

2026 - ''Polje'', Device art 8.026, Kontejner & Vestige, MSU, Zagreb

2025 - "Day for Day", 60. Zagreb Salon of Visual Arts, 2025 HDLU, Zagreb

2024. – 2025. - ''In Visible'', 29. Slavonian Biennale: Institute of the Invisible – Spaces of Perception, Rector's Office in Osijek, Museum of Fine Arts, Osijek; Meštrović Pavilion as a guest, SKD Prosvjeta, Zagreb

2024.-2025. - ''Calm'', SC Gallery, Zagreb; Radoslav Putar Award 2025, Salon Galić, Split

2021 – ''Weight'', AŽ Gallery, Atelieri Žitnjak, Zagreb

2019 - ''-scape'', VN Gallery, Zagreb

2019 - ''Inside'', Instalatrij, Public Open University, Zagreb

2018 - "≈ 30 steps in balance", 34. Youth Salon – Panoptikon, HDLU, Zagreb

2017 - ''CFP - Composition French Pavilion'', Centre of Circumstances, French Pavilion, SC, Zagreb