Viktor Popovic draws from his Croatian heritage as he explores the modernist legacy of the socialist period in former Yugoslavia, recontextualizing the architecture of the 1960s and 1970s in Split, Croatia, Popovic creates work that is utterly modern yet entrenched in cultural history.
Born in Split, Croatia in 1972, Viktor Popovic earned a joint Bachelor degree and Master's from the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb, Croatia in 1997. After graduating with an MFA in Painting. Popovic held his first exhibitions in Croatia, including a solo exhibition at Salon Galić Gallery in Split in 1998 and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Split, Croatia in 2000. Other important exhibitions of his work include Junge Kroatische Kunst at Galerie Eiswürfel in Berlin, Germany (2005), 9th Triennial of Croatian Sculpture, Glyptotheque at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb, Croatia (2006), One on one, Museum of Fine Arts, Split, Croatia (2011), Untitled (Archive ST3: Military Hospital), MSU Gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia (2017), and The Armory Show, New York, USA (2022). Popovic had exhibited across Croatia, Italy, Tunisia, Spain, Slovenia, Finland, The United States of America, Germany, England, Hungary, Slovenia, Belgium, and Austria. He has also been awarded a number of distinguished grants and awards including 27th Slavonian Biennial Ex Aequo Award, Art Museum, Osijek, Croatia (2020), A:D: Curatorial residency program in Berlin, Germany (2019), Art Omni Residency Program in Ghent, New York (2017), Grand Prix, 9th Croatian Triennial of Graphic Art from Klovićevi Dvori Gallery in Zagreb, Croatia (2024), Second Prize, Slavonian Biennale, Museum of Fine Arts in Osijek, Croatia (2020). Popovic's work has been collected by major public institutions throughout Croatia, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, the Museum of Fine Arts in Split, the Gallery of Fine Arts in Zadar and the the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka.
Viktor Popović is an artist living and working in Split, Croatia where he is the head of the Painting Department of the Arts Academy. In his work he often uses found objects and raw industrial materials in installations that probe the relationship between artwork (or object), audience, history of the exhibition space, and the environment or location of the gallery itself. His work often bridges photography and light installations. He uses archival photographs and construction materials for installations, combining fluorescent light tubes, color correction filters, and archival materials to introduce historic elements in a modern context. His work questions how personal and social memories inform understanding of heritage and how we can reflect on and question forgotten cultural values.