Maja Marković

Born 1979 in Zagreb/Croatia.

Maja Marković graduated in 2011 from Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb with an MA degree in painting. There she refined her own visual and conceptual vocabulary that emerged through her focus on intersection between architecture, drawing, and spatial analysis. She is currently living and working in Zagreb.

She was a recipient of several scholarships and award nominations for her work: Kulturbunker Artist in Residence, Frankfurt am Main/Germany (2014), BMUKK Artist in Residence, Schloss Laudon, Vienna/Austria (2013), First Award at Visura Aperta, Festival of audio and visual media, Momjan/Croatia (2011), Awarded by Croatian Association of Artists for the best emerging artist (2009), Finalist of Josip Racic Award, Croatian Contemporary Art Award (2008), Finalist of Radoslav Putar Award, the first and only annual national award for young visual artists in Croatia, Institute for Contemporary Art – SCCA, Zagreb (2007), CEEPUS Scholarship, Academy Of Fine Arts Ljubljana, Ljubljana/Slovenia (2005).

The last few years she has focused on the exploration of space and interpreting it in the attempt to reach its integrality. Her recent interest lies in exploring the artistic and theoretical implications of the concept of home (or its fictions) which, from this perspective, can be viewed as experienced space existing in the mind and as meaning-charged activity. Her artistic research is based on exploring the idea of home/place that is not a fixed product, but a dynamic place, a living process or construction. In many of her works, she investigates structures, combines them by highlighting their particular portions in color, with the aim to direct the viewer’s gaze and force him to form an attitude. After the phase of depicting space horizontally (geographically) that she supplemented by historical elements, without insisting on synthesis, she has assumed a different position, could say more active, more personal and thus more exposed.

Recent solo exhibitions include Reliance, Otok Gallery, Art radionica Lazareti, Dubrovnik/Croatia (2012), The Happening, Anex Gallery, Multimedia Centre Luka, Pula/Croatia (2011), Interferences, AZ Gallery, Art ateliers Zitnjak, Zagreb (2011), Interrupted, Open Atelier Roban, curated by Sandra Križić Roban, Zagreb (2010), Maps of Found and Unfound, HPB and Museum of Contemporary Art, HPB Bank, curated by Ivana Janković, Zagreb (2008) and Great Plan, Expanded Media Gallery, Croatian Association of Artists, Zagreb (2007).

Group exhibitions include Standpoint under construction, T-HT award exhibition of Croatian Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (2013), Kulturkontakt, Concordiaplatz, Vienna/Austria (2014), In the meantime, Here We Are3 exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art Istria, curated by Mladen Lučić, Pula/Croatia (2012), Interrupted, Bauhaus in personal exhibition in Association of Architects, Zagreb (2011), Interferences, Kenova exhibition of contemporary artists, curated by Slaven Tolj, Kotor/Montenegro (2011), Organs, Visura Aperta, Momjan/Croatia (2011).

Maja Marković is a participant in the exchange program between the Akademie Schloss Solitude and Croatian artists from the Center for Independent Culture and Youth (POGON), Zagreb.