Galženica Gallery

Galženica Gallery, Velika Gorica Public Open University

Galženica Gallery is a non-profit gallery that operates within the Public Open University Velika Gorica. It was founded in 1980 and since then continuously – first as one of Zagreb's galleries of contemporary art, and after the independence of Velika Gorica, as the only gallery in Velika Gorica of this type – monitors, promotes and produces contemporary art.

Gallery Council: Margareta Biškupić, Tomislav Buntak, Branko Franceschi, Željka Himbele, Mario Mišković.

The first head of the gallery, in the period from 1980 to 2001, was the art historian Radovan Vuković (1950, Dubravice near Skradin). He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar in 1975. art history and French language and literature. After studying in 1978, he enrolled at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, France, and in 1979/1980 he worked as a professor of art history at the High School Center for Education in Daruvar. In two decades of professional leadership and professional public activity as an art historian, curator and art critic, he laid the foundations of the program and organizational structure of the Galženica Gallery. Independently or in collaboration with other galleries, by 2020 he has realized over 140 exhibitions (individual, thematic, retrospective) of leading Croatian and other artists of modern art. In addition to program and organizational, exhibition activities, he was engaged in art and pedagogical work, participated, organized and led art forums and professional lectures, wrote professional texts and published critical reviews in local newspapers and radio shows RVG, Vijenac, Kontura, Luč magazine and exhibition catalogs. in other galleries and actively participated in the organization of public cultural life of the city of Velika Gorica (as one of the co-founders and a member of the Presidency of the Matica hrvatska branch).

He was succeeded by art historian and curator Klaudio Štefančić (1969, Sisak), who graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb in 1995 with a degree in comparative literature and art history. In 2008, he completed postgraduate studies in literature at the same faculty. From 1995 to 1996 he completed his internship at the City Museum in Sisak, and from 1997 to 2000 he worked as a curator at the Klovićevi dvori Gallery in Zagreb. His areas of interest include modern art theory, media theory and art, as well as curatorial and visual studies. Both independently and in collaboration with others, he curated and organized exhibitions, both in the country and abroad. As a guest lecturer, he lectured at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, at the Academy of Arts in Split and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. He has participated in international conferences in Zagreb and Rijeka dedicated to contemporary visual and media culture. From 2008 to 2015 he taught curatorial theory and practice at the non-formal educational initiative Curatorial Platform from Zagreb. He is the author of the book Montage of Organisms on the artistic work of Danijel Kovač (Fraktura, 2005). He writes and publishes in exhibition catalogs, in Zarez, Život umjetnosti, Umjetnosti riječi, Konturi, 15 dana and on Croatian Radio.