Curator
Marina Šafarić
As part of its summer exhibition programme, Y Gallery has joined forces with Zagreb’s Lauba Gallery, which has curated a selection of works by two Croatian artists — Đuro Seder and Marko Tadić — representing different generations and artistic styles, for display on the Ljubljana art scene.
Đuro Seder is represented in the exhibition by six oil-on-canvas paintings that embody his figurative expressionism. With vigorous, bold, and expressive brushstrokes saturated with intense colour, he depicted sacred themes, landscapes, and human relationships. While Seder described himself as a figurative artist, others recognised him as a key figure in the new wave of contemporary Croatian expressionism. Over the course of his near-century-long life, he remained artistically active and held various roles — from technical editor and graphic designer for numerous magazines, to Dean of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. His work was regularly showcased in solo and group exhibitions, earning him numerous awards.
Alongside Seder’s paintings, Lauba presents us with Marko Tadić’s distinctive collages, which continue to explore themes that have long fascinated the artist — the concept of modern urbanism and post-war utopian architecture. Tadić blends these themes with vintage photographs sourced from Zagreb’s flea markets, into which he integrates hand-drawn elements, thereby creating entirely new micro-worlds and subtle, suggestive narratives. As a multidisciplinary artist of a new generation, Tadić is frequently described as one of the most compelling figures in contemporary Croatian art. His body of work spans not only collage but also drawing, photography, animated film, and installation.
Đuro Seder is a Croatian painter, who was born on 29 November 1927 in Zagreb. After completing a classical grammar school in Split, he went on to study painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, graduating in 1951 under the mentorship of Antun Mejzdić. He completed his postgraduate specialisation in 1953 with Marina Tartaglia. Seder worked as a technical editor and graphic designer for various magazines and publishers, and was also active in children’s book illustration and printmaking. From 1959 to 1966, he was a member of the influential art collective Gorgona. In the 1960s and 1970s, he published poetry, and in 1978 he released a poetry collection titled Otac iz lonca (Father from the Pot). Between 1981 and 1998, he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, serving as its dean from 1983 to 1987. In 2012, he was awarded the title of professor emeritus. Seder’s work has been exhibited in numerous national and international galleries and museums. In 2000, he became a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU), and from 2011, he served as head of the HAZU Glyptotheque. He received numerous accolades over the course of his career, including the Vladimir Nazor Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001 and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Croatian Association of Visual Artists in 2018. His artistic oeuvre spans a wide range of styles, from post-secessionism to expressionism, with a later focus on biblical themes. He is also the author of church stained-glass designs and numerous works with religious subject matter.
Marko Tadić was born in 1979 in Sisak, Croatia. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. His artistic practice centres on everyday life and the utopias of socialist modernism, which he explores through collages made from found objects and archival fragments, often sourced from flea markets. Tadić has received numerous art awards, including the Vladimir Nazor Award for Best Exhibition in 2015 and the Radoslav Putar Award for Best Young Contemporary Artist in 2008. He has taken part in artist residencies in Helsinki, New York, Los Angeles, Frankfurt am Main, and Vienna. His films have been screened at various international festivals of animated and experimental film, and his works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows around the world. In 2017, he represented Croatia at the 57th Venice Biennale, together with Tina Gverović.
