Pavle Pavlović

Pavle Pavlović (b. 1983) graduated from the School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb in 2003. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb under Prof. Zlatko Keser and graduated in 2010 under the mentorship of Prof. Zoltan Novak. Since 2016, he teaches at the Department of Painting at the same institution.

In his paintings, Pavlović constructs a distinctive pictorial universe in which personal experience and individual motivations are combined with a diverse range of elements derived from the virtual world. His works function as collages of heterogeneous influences, referencing meme culture, online phenomena, viral imagery, scenes from comic books, and the artist’s sustained engagement with late Gothic and early Renaissance painting. These elements are juxtaposed with the digital language of GIFs and the camp aesthetics associated with screensavers and stock photography, producing a mode of ironic distance.

His recent solo exhibitions include Starbust at Ravnikar Gallery, Ljubljana (2025); Triumph of the Virtues at Trotoar Gallery, Zagreb (2023); and Post-Ordinary at Plan X Gallery, Milan (2023). His work has also been included in group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2025, 2018, 2012); the National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb (2025); the National Museum of China, Beijing (2022); the Museo Revoltella, Trieste (2022); the National Museum in Zadar (2018); the National Museum in Gdańsk (2016); the Essl Museum, Vienna (2013); Spinnerei Leipzig (2013); Künstlerhaus Wien (2011); and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (2009).

Pavlović was awarded the Essl Award CEE, Vienna (2011), and the Iva Vraneković Award at the 33rd Youth Salon, Zagreb (2016). His works are held in public collections, including Albertina Modern, Vienna; Erste Fragments, Zagreb; and the National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb.

 

EXHIBITION LIST, selection

2024 Topics of Crucial Importance, Zlati Ajngel Gallery, Varaždin, Croatia
2024 Triumph of Virtues, Zuccato Gallery, Poreč, Croatia
2023 Triumph of Virtues, Trotoar Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia
2023 Post ordinary, Plan X Gallery, Milano, Italy
2022 Grand Tour, Caja Blanca UALSP, Mexico
2022 Contemporary Croatian Painting between Figuration and Abstraction, Museo Revoltella , Trieste, Italy
2022 9th Beijing International Art Biennale, National Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing, China
2021 My pal Foot Foot , Kljaković Collection, Zagreb, Croatia
2021 6th Biennale of Painting, HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
2020 It can’t happen here, Galerija Poola, Pula, Croatia
2019 5th Biennale of Painting, HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
2019 Known unknowns, Westpol Airspace, Leipzig, Germany
2019 Parallel Protocol, Galerija Poola , Pula, Croatia
2018 Safe Risks, Salon Galić, Split, Croatia
2018 18th Blue Salon, National Museum of Zadar, Galerija umjetnina , Croatia
2018 Despite the Environment, HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
2018 Search for Reality, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
2017 Safe Risks, Galerija Bačva , HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
2016 Exporting Zagreb, National Museum of Gdańsk , Gdańsk , Polland
2015 3rd Bijenale slikarstva , HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
2015 3rd Danube Biennale, Danubiana Centrum moderného umenia, Bratislava, Slovakia
2015 Kristallin # 18, Salzamt , Linz, Austria
2015 Figuration 3, Galerija Zuccato , Poreč, Croatia
2014 Lostland, Galerija 90 60 90, Zagreb, Croatia
2014 Solarfall, Galerija SC, Zagreb, Croatia
2014 Artigo Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2013 LIKE IT !, Essl Museum, Wien, Austria
2013 MUTATIS MUTANDIS, Halle 14, Spinnerei , Leipzig, Germany
2012 IN OUR BACKYARDS, Werkschau Spinnerei , Leipzig, Germany
2012 T HT Award @ MSU, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
2011 The other reality Croatian emerging painters, Kunstlerhaus , Vienna, Austria
2011 ESSL ART AWARD CEE 2011, Winners’ Exhibition, Essl Museum, Vienna, Austria
2011 Document 1, Galerija Karas, Zagreb, Croatia
2009 New Fragments 6, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia
2009 ESSL AWARD CEE 2009, Nominees Exhibition, Gliptoteka HAZU, Zagreb, Croatia

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2011 ESSL AWARD CEE 2011
Collector’s Invitation prize, Vienna, Austria
2012 – 2013 One sided story art residency, Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany
2014 Glo‘ art residency, Lanaken , Belgium
2015 Salzamt art residency, Linz, Austria
2016 Iva Vraneković Award, 33th Youth Salon, Zagreb, Croatia
2019 DE/CONSTRUCTION OF THE PAINTING, Leipzig, Germany

pavlepavlovic.com