VUCO: State of Things, monographic exhibition

Duration: May 7^th – June 29^th 2025
Location: Klovićevi dvori Gallery, 1^st Floor

Exhibition author: Jasmina Bavoljak
Exhibition curator: Anamarija Komesarović
Selection of works and exhibition layout: Jasmina Bavoljak and Branko Franceschi

Following the exhibitions from the Modern Classics series, such as exhibitions of artists Nives Kavurić Kurtović, Nevenka Arbanas, Nikola Reiser, Mersad Berber, Zlatko Keser and others, Klovićevi dvori Gallery presents a monographic exhibition of one of the most significant Croatian artists of the 20^th and 21^st  centuries, Miro Vuco.

After many years, visitors of the exhibition will be presented with a selection of works by the sculptor, present on the Croatian art scene for more than fifty years, a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts until his retirement, and the winner of the HDLU Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.

Miro Vuco’s early career was marked by his participation in the work of the Biafra group, which operated from 1970 to 1978. This period determined his artistic reflections and aspirations towards activism and socially engaged art, most often of a pessimistic mood. Opposition to social indifference in the visual sense was manifested in his work through the fight against Croatian abstraction, and especially against self-sufficient conceptual art. His forms of new or violent figuration reflect expressionist ferocity in which Ivančić’s and Baconian drama can be detected. Critics have described the sculptures from this period as a form of the so-called „radical realism“ in an existential key (Z. Rus). Instead of permanent materials such as bronze, Vuco preferred non-standard, often ephemeral materials such as polyester. These materials are key to understanding the character of this exhibition. In later works, such as the series of reliefs from the 1980s, a shift towards a more tactile expression is evident, which gradually develops in painting.

After the breakup of the Biafra group, Vuco began to focus on lighter themes. He created groups of angels enhanced with color or terracotta pedestals, and during that period he emerged as a sculptor of humorous and witty replicas, very personal, self-reflective and meditative. The artist also linked some of his works to preoccupations such as portraits and public monuments (e.g. the monument to Tin Ujević in Varšavska Street, Zagreb, 1991).

In addition to sculpture, Miro Vuco also paints. The paintings are expressive, with thick and heavy layers, and a relief enformel structure. His palette extends from black, dark and gloomy pastel coatings to bright and bright red colors that radiate joy – at this exhibition, they will be presented to the Croatian audience for the first time.

Vuco’s art is characterized by diversity and playfulness: morphological and thematic curiosity as well as an interest in experimental solutions. This exhibition rounds off Miro Vuco’s decades-long artistic practice, which began in the period of social insecurity of the 1970s and continues to this day, marked by different but equally challenging circumstances. Vuco remains active in reflecting on the role of art in the contemporary context.