"Maybe my work is just decoration." This sentence, spoken quietly during our recent session, stopped me cold. Not because it's unusual—I hear it constantly—but because it reveals a deeper truth about how artists sabotage their own development. The artist who said it (let's call her Marina) creates stunning abstract works exploring relationships between color...
Or: What medieval mystics understood about art that most people still miss Here's a question that might sound ridiculous at first: What do a 14th-century alchemist hunched over bubbling beakers and a contemporary curator installing an exhibition have in common? More than you'd think, actually. And understanding this connection might just change how you...
The message came through Instagram on a Tuesday morning — unusual for me, since most collector inquiries arrive via email or phone calls. A woman I'd never met had been following my social media for months, finally prompted to reach out after reading my recent post about art being selected purely to complement yacht...
While half the art world is documenting Mediterranean light on Instagram, the other half is contemplating empty exhibition spaces and wondering whether cultural memory extends beyond summer holidays. Here's how to navigate this annual pause productively, regardless of whether you're currently traveling or holding down the fort. August represents the art world's collective cognitive...
On facilitating meaningful encounters between Croatia's art scene and international collectors seeking works for their superyacht interiors. The Assignment When international collectors approached me about accessing Croatia's contemporary art scene for potential acquisitions during their yacht refit, the request represented exactly the kind of cultural mediation work that interests me...
Or: What happens when opportunity meets the terrifying reality of being seen Last week, an artist contacted me about what appeared to be a dream scenario: direct access to a foreign gallery, potential representation on the table, genuine opportunity materializing. We mapped out the approach together: Review his existing work (mostly available on his...
Why the art world's obsession with pricing formulas misses the point entirely I recently sat through yet another webinar promising to reveal "the secret formula" for pricing artwork. Width × height × experience factor ÷ mysterious coefficient = your price. Neat, tidy, mathematically satisfying. Also completely useless. After fifteen years working with artists, galleries,...
It took me three months to finish Sarah Thornton's Seven Days in the Art World. Three whole months for a 294-page book. In our swipe-left culture, that feels almost embarrassingly slow. But here's what happened during those three months: I didn't just read that book—I lived with it. I argued with it over coffee....
We love our origin stories in the art world. The narrative goes something like this: genius emerges, fully-formed, with a distinctive voice and unwavering vision. Think Basquiat exploding onto the scene, or Banksy materializing with a complete aesthetic philosophy. These stories are compelling, romantic, and almost entirely fiction. The reality is messier, more interesting,...
A view from my son's bedroom: notebooks full of experimental marks and unauthorized wall drawings that somehow capture the essential human need to create The evidence sits right there on my dining table, scattered across my son's bedroom walls, and honestly, in every corner of human civilization: we are compelled to make marks, to...
While you're waiting for the "right moment," someone else just submitted their application. Here's an uncomfortable truth about creative careers: the perfect moment doesn't exist. It's a mirage that keeps talented people perpetually preparing instead of actually doing. And right now, while you're reading this in June, thinking you'll "get serious" about that project...
Sunday evenings have this particular quality of pessimism, don't they? That Sunday scares feeling when the week ahead looms with all its uncertainties. It was during one of these contemplative moments — after watching Star Trek with my husband…because we’re nerds and proud of it — that recent conversations and news stories crystallized into an...
In today's ever-changing digital landscape, museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions face the challenge of keeping pace with technological evolution. As custodians of our shared heritage and champions of artistic expression, these organizations must reimagine their roles in a world where physical and virtual realms increasingly overlap. This shift isn't merely about adopting new...
Or: why your social media algorithm should probably be designed by an art therapist We've been thinking about art all wrong. For the past century, we've treated art like it's this precious, separate thing that belongs behind glass in climate-controlled rooms, visited by hushed crowds on weekend afternoons. We've created an entire industry around keeping...
Why Narration Matters Think about the stories you’ve read on social media that hooked you from the very first sentence. Were they personal revelations that spoke to you, or just raw information about something that has happened? Just like in the physical world, nobody will listen to your story online if you can’t keep their...
As my 18-month-old constantly sees me writing notes and scribbling exhibition plans in my notebook, he's developed an interest in drawing himself. So, I decided to sit him on my lap and let him start drawing in my notebook since he refused to draw with or in anything other than what I was using....
There's something almost magical about Bob Ross's voice. That soft, gentle tone telling you that mistakes are just "happy accidents" has transcended American borders to become a global phenomenon. From Tokyo to Berlin, his soothing presence and paintings of serene landscapes have captivated audiences worldwide. But where does Ross sit in the broader conversation...
Ever stood in a gallery feeling like an imposter? Or wondered why certain artists keep getting exhibitions while others remain invisible? You're not alone, and Deleuze might have something to say about it. After years of navigation between academic theory and public art spaces, we've become fascinated with how the art ecosystem operates as...
It’s not easy being an artist today. Instead of spending most of your precious time creating art and focusing on what’s important to you, you have to be your own art manager, content creator, marketing specialist, photographer and videographer, among others (as if that’s not enough), to reach your target audience and financially gain...
"Derivative! Bullshit!" If you've ever felt intimidated by an art gallery or confused by a critic's impenetrable prose, there's a brilliant piece of satire that perfectly captures why. In an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Danny DeVito plays Ongo Gablogian, an art critic whose name cleverly plays on Larry Gagosian (one of...
...To be an artist meant to choose a different life-style—to live minimally, with cheap rent and minimal needs and somehow survive. Today no one can afford that romance.1It’s 1977 and Jenny Holzer is writing her Truisms (1977–1979) on papers, printing them and pasting them on buildings, walls and fences around Manhattan. Fast forward to today:...
Have you ever walked into a contemporary art gallery and found yourself puzzled, thinking, "Is this really art?" Maybe you thought: “I could do that”. You're not alone. Many people struggle to understand contemporary art, especially when it includes unconventional materials like trash, or when it's based on ephemeral concepts rather than traditional media...
Each of us has our own language that may or may not be understandable to others, but often not even to ourselves. It usually consists of associations, signs, symbols, empirical, conceptual, or emotional fragments and is truly individual. Our inner monologues are unique but also something we sometimes have to decipher. Our thoughts are sometimes...
As you gaze from the shore at the azure sea, the brilliant sun shines in your eyes. You squint, but through your closed eyelids, the dazzling whiteness of the day still peeks through. Such white visions gazed back at us from the azure walls of the Studio 21 Gallery in Split. Their creator is...
If you've ever visited or lived in a foreign country - truly foreign - you might have felt the strange looks of people on you. You might have felt different but wanted to belong. In a world where people are often divided into “us” and “them”, locals and foreigners, even the tiniest gesture of friendliness...
The polemical question today is "what does it mean to be a woman?" Our aim is not, nor is it possible, to answer that question in a single post. However, what we can do is present one perspective on this fantastic being called "woman." In the recently opened Retrospective of artist Petar Jakelić, we...
There is a stereotype of women being the more emotional gender, more intuitive, more in touch with themselves. Perhaps there is some truth to that, but woman is much more than that. The title of the group exhibition by Alma Čača, Karin Grenc, and Tea Morić Šitum, called "Intuition," opened at the University Gallery...
Recently, for the first time, I dirtied my shoes while exploring an exhibition. Why is that important, you may ask? It speaks to the level of interaction the exhibition demands. In this case, I am referring to the work "Luminous Light" by Ugo Rondinone, which the artist presented at the Kula Gallery. The exhibition...
