Identity Suspensions
Identity Suspensions:
MARGARETA LEKIĆ
TIHOMIR MATIJEVIĆ
JOSIPA STOJANOVIĆ
VLATKA ŠKORO
3. 4. – 24. 4. 2026.
Echoes of Matter
Guided by a sculptor’s instinct as a way of understanding the world, Margareta Lekić, Tihomir Matijević, Vlatka Škoro and Josipa Stojanović create art in an interspace between the tangible and the invisible. Drawing inspiration in their surroundings, they develop works in which volume, tension and structure remain the foundation, while their approaches involve different media, cultivating sensitivity for the matter and its metamorphoses.
Margareta Lekić, the only artist among the four who is faithful to the physical object, presents herself with the work In the Same Space (2025), where she explores the relationships within the group. Alongside the figure, the artist models the interspace as well. Her approach is analytical and sociological; she materializes the invisible tension between the isolated individual and the silent collective. The emptiness between the ceramic bodies becomes an active participant who talks about the state in which we all share the same framework, but not necessarily the same experience.
Tihomir Matijević takes away all weight from sculpture and translates it into time, movement, and narrative. His work is marked by multidisciplinarity and a subtle perception of otherness, expressed through a poetic language. In the video Man, House, Poem (2022) the sculpture interacts with the environment, entering the rhythm of change and duration. In the work A Monument to the Snowman (2021) the focus is shifted towards transience – while the life of the external world unfolds in its own continuity, the act of sculpting remains frozen. Through such shifts, the artist develops a delicate relationship towards time, marked with a fine conceptual note.
Vlatka Škoro transposes sculpture into the medium of monumental drawing, using pencil as the tool for modeling resistance and mass. The work Weight (2026) is the result of a long process of saturating paper with graphite, until a metallic sheen is achieved that gives the drawing the physical density of a sculpture. Škoro’s approach is process-based and almost meditative: through layers of graphite, she documents both the strength and fragility of the human figure, which in the whiteness of the paper becomes a visual essay on endurance and existence.
Josipa Stojanović uses digital print to establish a parallel between the biochemistry of the nervous system and the basic raw materials for sculpture. By joining elements such as calcium and potassium with plaster, wood, or stone, she seeks to reconcile these seemingly abstract worlds. Her work evolves through experimentation, at the intersection of science and art, where form gradually emerges from the very process of research.
This encounter becomes a point of intersection between different worldviews, unified in the attempt to enrich the very act of observation. Attention directed toward matter, its possibilities and its relationships within space opens up different perspectives for thinking and sensing the reality, giving the viewer the freedom to uncover the hidden layers in each work.
Dora Lučić
About the artists:
Margareta Lekić (Osijek, 1982) graduated in Sculpture in 2007 from the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts where she also obtained her Doctorate in Arts in 2020. She is employed as an Assistant Professor at the Osijek Academy of Arts and Culture. She has had twenty-seven solo exhibitions and has participated in more than sixty group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad (Europe, the USA, Japan, and China). She has further developed her art practice through residencies and professional stays in the USA, Austria, France, Hungary, Spain, and Jordan. She is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists – East. She lives and works in Osijek.
Tihomir Matijević was born in 1975 in Našice. He studied at the Department of Sculpture at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts and at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He received his doctorate in 2013 from the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts. He has been exhibiting his work since 1998, in both solo and group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. His work includes sculpture, comics, and writing. He received the Ex aequo award at the 22nd Slavonian Biennale, one of three equal awards at the 11th Triennial of Croatian Sculpture, a special recognition from AICA (International Association of Art Critics), and a special recognition at the 40th Split Salon. He has published the following books: Torta i bronca, a treatise about the role of sculpture in public space, (MLU, Osijek, 2013), Na ruskom se umjetnost kaže iskustvo, (collection of essays, Meandarmedia and AUK, Zagreb, Osijek, 2020) and comic albums: Ljubav & cigarete, (HAS, Osijek, 2022) and Cvijeće na šanku, ( HAS, Osijek, 2020), for which he got the award for the best comic album at the international comics festival Supertoon in Šibenik in 2021. He is employed as full professor at the Osijek Academy of Arts and Culture.
Vlatka Škoro completed her Master’s degree in Sculpture in 2010 and earned her PhD in 2018 from the postgraduate doctoral program at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts. She has held fourteen solo exhibitions and participated in around forty group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. She has also taken part in numerous workshops and festivals. She is the recipient of the Erste Grand Prix Award (2010), the Croatian Association of Fine Artists (HDLU Zagreb) Award for Best Young Artist (2020), and the Jury Award at the exhibition They Are Here (2025). Her works are held in several private and museum collections. https://www.vlatkaskoro.com/
Josipa Stojanović was born on 17 October 1993. She completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in Art Education at the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek. Since 2018, she has been working as a teaching assistant in sculpture courses. She is a recipient of the University Scholarship, the Rector’s Award, and the Ujević Art Foundry Award for her work Self-Portrait at the 34th Youth Salon. Stojanović is an active member of HDLU Osijek and has participated in artist residencies and Erasmus+ programs in Austria, Hungary, and Jordan. She has held five solo exhibitions and participated in more than fifteen group exhibitions in Croatia and internationally. In 2023, she was a finalist for the Golden Watermelon Award in Pula with her work Dilemma (in collaboration with Mario Stojanović).
