Scene
In the first summer month, besides a variety of festivals, Croatia offers a wide range of exhibitons and pop-ups. Throughout the whole month of June there is going to be some kind of event, whether it be musical, cultural or gastro. Here’s a look into some of them:
EXHIBITIONS
Organ Vida: Happy Spiralling
Location: Zagreb, MSU and SKD Prosvjeta Gallery
Date: June 11 – September 06
The fourteenth edition of the biennial International Festival Organ Vida opens on June 11 at 8 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb with five exhibitions, including the central exhibition of the finalists whose works responded to the festival theme Happy Spiralling. In addition to the group exhibition of the finalists with works by eleven artists, four solo exhibitions of artists by Julie Béne, Kevin Osepa, Sara De Brito Faustino and Paula Tončić will open at the MSU Zagreb on the same evening.
“This year’s edition of Organ Vida, Happy Spiralling, seeks to find meaning in everyday life oversaturated with images: we are bombarded with stimuli, but nothing touches us. The festival questions how contemporary visual culture reflects reality, but also how it actively produces it, how it shapes the ways in which we see ourselves, understand the world and create art. The works represented tackle the oversaturated digital world: they show how it manipulates and exhausts us, but they also destabilize it through subversion: they play with it, mock it or escape from it.”
37 73
Location: Zagreb, Kamba Garage
Date: June 5
The opening of the exhibition 37 73 by Tomislav Hršak, Mihael Klanjčić and Niko Mihaljević will take place at the Kamba Garage (Ilica 37) and the Klet Studio-Gallery (Ilica 73) on Friday, June 5.
“The group exhibition 37 73 is conceived as an open and processual format that explores the potential of urban fragments, marginal spaces and fictional narratives. The invited authors, Tomislav Hršak, Mihael Klanjčić and Niko Mihaljević, in their artistic practice express an interest in deconstruction and reflection on the fundamental principles of artistic exhibition and the reuse and recontextualization of materials and space. The collaboration of the three authors is conceived primarily as a space in which ideas and thought processes are at the center of action, with the artworks at the two exhibition locations articulated as spatial interventions, traces of artistic action and pseudo-archival objects,” the announcement states.
Petra Vuković: Consolidation
Location: Zagreb, Siva Gallery
Date: June 4 – 10
The exhibition is set up as a series of works that include the animated film Consolidation, the art book Kućica and digital collages created during the artist’s graduate studies. As the accompanying text states, Petra Vuković’s works “explore the possibilities of visual language as a space for reflecting on inner processes and experiences through different media.”
Consolidation represents a personal and artistic search for healing through visual language. Through a combination of introspective narration, psychotherapy methods and multimedia expression. The work explores how art can be a space for confrontation, reflection and transformation. The animated film uses allegory and fictional elements to shape the narrative, while it is accompanied by digital collages and an art book composed of fragments of a visual diary that expand the filmic whole. In this interrelationship of media, the work explores how the artistic process can serve to shape and reinterpret experience and translate it into visual language.
8th Painting Biennale
Location: Zagreb, Klovićevi Dvori Gallery
Date: April 28 – June 21
After the previous presentation in Varaždin, where the Biennale opened in the Varaždin City Museum (Sermage Palace and Herzer Palace) and the Kovačić Macolić Gallery, the Zagreb stage in the Klovićevi dvori Gallery constitutes one of the key exhibition sections of this year’s edition. After Zagreb, the Biennale will be presented in the Poreč Open University, the Vukovar City Museum and the Providur’s Palace in Zadar in 2026, thus becoming present in different regions of Croatia and bringing the contemporary Croatian painting scene closer to a wider audience. The Painting Biennale represents a broad cross-section of generations actively shaping the Croatian painting scene, with the aim of recording the current biennale production and articulating contemporary tendencies in painting. As the Meštrović Pavilion – the usual central venue of the Biennial – is currently undergoing renovation, this year’s edition was developed in collaboration with numerous partner institutions and is being realized as the most comprehensive to date.
Dorinda Bulić-Čotić: City View
Location: Korčula, St. Mark’s Square
Date: May 12 – July 16
As part of the program marking its 20th anniversary, the Grey Zone will present the exhibition City View: Dubrovnik by artist Dorinda Bulić-Čotić on May 12th, which will be held at St. Mark’s Square in Korčula.
The City View: Dubrovnik project functions as a visual exploration of urban space that the author began in 2016, documenting ATMs installed in the historic center of Dubrovnik. The work is developed as an artistic critique of the commercialization of urban space, within the program framework of the Grey Zone and its thematic line Critical Tourism. “It is especially relevant in the context of cities like Korčula, which often follow the Dubrovnik model in tourism development, ignoring its negative consequences, loss of authenticity, degradation of public space and suppression of the needs of the local community. The curator of the exhibition is Darko Fritz.
Illustrator dialogue: Ena Jurov and Sofija Pašalić
Location: Zagreb, HDD Gallery
Date: May 29 – June 19
On Friday, May 29, at 7 p.m., the HDD Gallery will host the Spačkolom exhibition by Ena Jurov and Sofija Pašalić as part of the Illustrators’ Dialogue program cycle.
This cycle began five years ago and was conceived as a space for meeting between illustrators from different countries who had not worked together before, and over the course of 12 months they will collaborate on an idea that emerged from their conversations and exchange of ideas. The illustrators’ dialogue between Jurov and Pašalić is based on the comic book form, and consists of a series of memories and fantasies of these two artists. “In Spačkolom, their joint comic created specifically for this exhibition, all stylistic and narrative seams are visible and there was no interest in hiding them. Moreover, the orange and green surfaces in the illustrations clearly signal whose imagination and hand each thing comes from, yet the story itself flows resolutely and clearly, and the unexpected changes in tone only add to the dynamics and throw the reader deeper inside, like a secret door in the floors of Sofia and Ena’s rooms.
These awkward overlaps, but also the will for the illustrators to adapt to each other, are also reflected in one of the comic’s several parallel narrative lines, the one in which Gvaky and Gavranka agree to meet and he admits to her that he must not go ashore. Gavranka spends almost the entire comic diligently building a complicated construction that will enable their meeting, which in one frame seems like a home and in another like a wicked castle,” pointed out the exhibition curator Marko Golub.
Julije Knifer: Papers: The Measure of Freedom
Location: Osijek, Museum of Fine Arts
Date: May – August
Julije Knifer, a timeless artist with roots in Osijek, has woven his life into art, as evidenced by this large, imposing exhibition of exceptional, and also global significance. His roots reach from Osijek, where he was born and lived, all the way to Paris, where he lived and continued to create. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth, his daughter Ana Knifer, together with Valentina Radoš, is also the author and curator of this exhibition. The exhibition is a production of the Museum of Fine Arts in Osijek, and the authors and curators of the exhibition are Ana Knifer, daughter of the artist Julije Knifer, and Valentina Radoš, museum advisor to the Museum of Fine Arts.
The works that will be exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts are part of his legacy, and a large part of them has not been publicly exhibited before. What paper was for Knifer, what freedom was, and how the name of this exhibition came about, are covered in the catalog through the texts of experts who have been studying his life and work for many years.
Art Fair NESVRSTANI
Location: Zagreb, Lauba
Date: June 12 – June 14
Three days of contemporary art, good music, encounters and an atmosphere that keeps people coming back every year. This year’s edition of the Boutique Art Fair NESVRSTANI brings together more than 300 artworks, 12 galleries and 10 independent artists from Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina — from greats like Kožarić, Knifer, Bućan and Seder to authors who are currently shaping the regional contemporary scene and the new collector generation.
Leading regional galleries such as Galeria Kranjčar, Trotoar, Poola, Flora and Themis are participating, along with international exhibitors Kibla (Maribor), Y Gallery (Ljubljana) and Galeria Brodac (Sarajevo). NESVRSTANI is not a classic exhibition or a typical art fair — here art is not just for viewing, but also for buying. Without auctions and hidden commissions, the audience can talk directly with gallerists and artists and find work for their first or next collecting step.
POP-UPS
Pop Up By The Lake
Location: Bundek Lake, Zagreb
Date: May 28 – June 28
Pop Up By The Lake is a month-long summer event in June that sees live music, food and drink, film screenings, stand-up comedy and general fun vibes by Lake Bundek. This year it will be on from 28th May to 29th June 2026.
Food Truck Festival
Location: Britanac Square, Zagreb
Date: June 8 – June 13
The favorite location of Zagreb residents is once again transforming into a dynamic urban gastro market for six days this year. Prepare to awaken all your senses with top-notch delicacies prepared for you by the best street food chefs from Croatia and the region. We are preparing for you top-notch street food, refreshing drinks, a musical program and an ambiance that only Britanac Square can provide.
Wine City
Location: Zagreb, Franjo Tuđman Park
Date: June 13 – June 27
A rich selection of wineries, a creative and musical program, and a gastronomic offer that will make you lick your fingers.
