Vladimir Novak

He was born in 1987 in Zagreb. He graduated in 2017 from the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2022, he has been a student of doctoral studies in fine arts. Since 2015, he has been continuously and actively participating in the art scene, presenting his works at several group and solo exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. In 2018, he won the HPB Grand Prix at the 34. Youth Salon and the GKR Award at the 13. Triennial of Croatian Sculpture and is one of the finalists of the Radoslav Putar Award 2022. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Croatian Association of Artists, since 2019 of the Croatian Society of Fine Arts. Since 2022, he has been an external artistic associate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where in January 2024 he acquired the title of assistant professor, and since December of the same year he has been employed as an assistant at the Department of Sculpture.

Her artistic work is based on questioning the possibilities of the medium of sculpture with an exceptional interest in the poetics of space and the understanding of plastic design, architecture, design, light and sound in the relation between space-medium-observer's experience. At the intersection of sculpture, technology and science, visible and invisible, by examining and playing with concepts such as body-mass, object-installation, object-sculpture, static-movement, light-shadow, performance-projection, from space to space, through iterations of her works, she tries to break the obvious boundaries between them. The topic of his artistic research in the context of his doctoral study is the analysis of strategies within the medium of sculpture and spatial art practices with an emphasis on the presence, perception and reception of works of art. The research aims to explore the sensory dimensions of works of art that are predominantly based on their (im)material and invisible appearance. Through experimental artworks in the media of spatial installations and interventions, light, sound and temporal-spatial constructions, she tries to answer questions such as: How to build spaces in art without matter? How to make what is invisible, intangible, untouchable, and what are the differences and boundaries between them? What are the artist's strategies in managing processes with minimal occurrence in different specific spatial contexts? Her research is based on theoretical sources that include key aspects of dematerialization, perception and spatio-temporal phenomena in contemporary art and the understanding of bodies in space, such as Gaston Bachelard's "poetics of space", Rosalind Krauss's analyses of the extended field of sculpture, Gilles Deleuze's theory of potential, Brian Massumi's concepts of affective intensities, Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological approaches and others.

She teaches the compulsory course Sculpture for students of the 2nd year of the Department of Animated Film and New Media and students of the 1st year of the Department of Painting and Graphics. The course includes an introduction to the basic methods, principles and concepts in sculpture such as shaping, volume, space, the positive-negative principle and traditional sculptural materials.

2024 – "In Visible", paper, 29th Slavonian Biennale: Institute of the Invisible – Spaces of Perception, Rector's Office in Osijek, Museum of Fine Arts, Osijek 2024 – "Calm", exhibition, SC Gallery, Zagreb 2022 – exhibition, Radoslav Putar Award 2021 – "Weight", exhibition, AŽ Gallery, Alelieri Žitnjak 2019 – "Silent Conquerors", exhibition, Diocletian's Cellars, Split 2019 – "Inside", work, exhibition "Instalačlatrij", Public Open University, Zagreb 2018 – "30 steps in balance", paper, 34. Youth Salon – Panoptikon, HDLU, Zagreb 2018 – "(No)thing", work, exhibition "The Second Center of Circumstances", Bačva Gallery and PM, Croatian Association of Artists, Zagreb 2018 – "In/Out of Line", work, exhibition "Device_art 6.018 – Machines are not alone", KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art practice from Zagreb, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb 2017 – "CFP – Composition", work, exhibition "Center of Circumstances", French Pavilion, Student Centre, Zagreb