Selected works of authors within the competition “Erste Fragmenti 12”

Zagreb, 20 May 2016 – Igor Ilic, Alen Kasumovic, Ana Kovacic, Mia Marekovic, Vida Meic, Ivana Pipal, Anita Prsa, Ivana Tkalcic, and Lana Stojicevic are authors whose works were selected by an expert jury for purchase within the competition “Erste Fragmenti 12” of Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d. (Erste bank). The overall winner of the competition will be selected among the said authors and Erste bank will award them with Erste Grand Prix in the amount of HRK 10,000 and enable them to set up an independent exhibition in the Kranjcar Gallery in 2017. The title of the “audience favourite” and the cash prize in the amount of HRK 3,000 will once again be presented to the author whose work collects the most likes on the project Facebook page until 24 May, while the bank presents the authors and the background of their works in details on their cultural platform Urbanka.hr and on the Facebook page of Urbanka. The bank will also award one annual scholarship in the amount of HRK 12,000 to a student of the Academy of Fine Arts. All purchased works will be presented in the exhibition of “Erste Fragmenti 12” on Monday, 30 May at 6 p.m. in the Kranjcar Gallery (Kaptol 26, Zagreb), when the overall winner of the competition will also be presented.

The works were selected by an expert jury among as many as 250 submitted applications. The jury consists of head of the Matica hrvatska Gallery and the Kranjcar Gallery Vanja Babic, Dean of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb Aleksandar Battista Ilic, art critic of Jutarnji list Patricia Kis, independent curator and producer for modern art, President of the Nomad organisation Vanja Zanko, academic painter and former “Fragmenti” exhibitor Sebastijan Dracic, and project manager Antonia Juric.

“Even though the competition is already in its mature, 12^th edition, the young, perspective, interesting and encouraging artists, who strengthen the community of ‘Fragmenti’ exhibitors every year preserve the freshness, enthusiasm and relevance of ‘Erste Fragmenti’, within which Erste bank has been purchasing art works from students of academies of fine art and artists under 30 since 2002”, says Antonia Juric, project manager.

The competition “Fragmenti 12” was open from 25 February to 25 March, and the beginning was also marked by the independent exhibition in the Kranjcar Gallery by last year’s winner Lana Stojicevic, whose work was among the purchased works this year too.

By purchasing the works of art, Erste banka is trying to enable young and not yet widely known artists to pursue further work and education, and to present them to a wider audience. The competition “Erste fragmenti” has been organised since 2002, and more than 150 works of young Croatian artists have been purchased in the past 11 editions and are now located in more than 130 locations (branch offices and office spaces) of Erste bank in Croatia. The authors of many purchased works, such as Tanja Deman, Sebastijan Dracic, Ivan Fijolic, Alem Korkut, Ines Matijevic Cakic, Lala Rascic, Zlatan Vehabovic, Matko Vekic, and many others, have become affirmed and esteemed names of the Croatian artistic scene.