Zlatan Vehabović was born in Banjaluka in 1982. Keen to push the boundaries of pictorial representation, he first sought to develop an in-depth understanding of western pictorial practice. After his master’s, he undertook a PhD in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.
Today, Vehabović is a leading figure in the contemporary Croatian art scene. He uses his erudite technical ability to investigate eclectic subjects and referents. Indeed, enriched by developing technologies, artistic activism and cultural globalisation, this production has a distinct cinematographic scope and intertextuality. In his work, he often borrows cinema’s still image narrative capacity, which explains why some of his paintings feel like movie posters: summarised experiences, condensed into breath-taking compositions.
Around 2016, both as a self-imposed process-related decision and as a reaction to his direct environment, Vehabović more consciously divided his body of work into thematic groups, including landscape, history, regional politics and the ecological aspect of his experiences.
His contributions to the Croatian art scene have been acknowledged through various awards, such as Emerging Artists in Southeast Europe (2010), first prize at the Zagreb Salon (2010), the International Association of Art Critics Award (2010) and the Essl Award (2007).
Solo exhibitions include: Zagreb Art Pavilion (2016); Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2015), Lauba House, Zagreb (2011); Kranjcar Gallery, Zagreb (2011); MMC Luca, Pula, Croatia (2010); Croatian Association of Visual Artists, Zagreb (2009); Gallery Galzenica, Zagreb (2007); Gallery SC, Zagreb (2006).
Selected group exhibitions include: Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2011); the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee (2011); Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York (2010); Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria (2009); Paolo Maria Deanesi Gallery, Rovereto, Italy (2010); Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria, Pula, Croatia (2009); Werket Museum, Avesta, Sweden (2008); S&G Galleries, Berlin (2008).
