Artist Name: Vladimir Novak
Residency Dates: February – March 2026
Born: 1987
Hometown: Zagreb, Croatia
Lives & Works: Zagreb, Croatia
URL: vladimir-novak.com | Instagram @vnovak.in
Education:
2017 – MA in Sculpture, Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb
2015 – BA in Sculpture, Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb
Bio/Statement:
Vladimir Novak is the recipient of the 2025 Radoslav Putar Award.
Vladimir Novak is a Zagreb-based artist whose practice investigates the limits of sculpture as a medium through the use of objects, (day)light, and sound installations, with a particular focus on space, media, and affective intensities. Through iterative processes, he seeks to dismantle established media boundaries by exploring the visible and the invisible, engaging with concepts such as body–mass, object–installation, stasis–movement, and light–shadow. His recent projects In Visible, Calm, and Day for a Day, employ radically minimalist and subtle interventions that emphasize processuality and the entanglement of artworks with natural and urban rhythms, their transformation across media, and their physical and socio-ecological resonances. Operating at the threshold of perception, within the ambivalence between malfunction and artistic act, his work challenges the perceptions of time and attention, questioning the boundary between aesthetic experience and banal everyday events.
His work has been recognized with many awards: for the sound installation Calm (2024), Vladimir Novak received the Radoslav Putar Award 2025 (YVAA), organized by the Institute for Contemporary Art; for the sound and light installation Day for a Day (2025) – Grand Prix, the HS AICA Award from the Croatian Section of the International Association of Art Critics, and the Kontrapunkt Award by Anonymous Philanthropist, all awarded at the 60th Zagreb Salon of Visual Arts 2025, organized by the Croatian Association of Artists, Zagreb; for the sculpture and light installation Structures ¾ (2019) – the Equal Award at the 47th Montenegrin Art Salon 2025, organized by the Municipality of Cetinje (MNE); for the installation ≈ 30 Steps in Balance (2018) – the HPB Grand Prix at the 34th Youth Salon Panopticon 2018, organized by the Croatian Association of Artists, Zagreb; for the sculpture CGZ09_18 (2017) – the Lokve Workshop Award at the 13th Triennial of Croatian Sculpture 2018, organized by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. His works are in different collections, such as the Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Antun Augustinčić Gallery in Klanjec, and public sculpture collections of the cities of Bjelovar, Vrsar, and Lič.
Support: Vladimir Novak’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
