SLOVENC, HRVOJE

Hrvoje Slovenc

Croatian, b. 1976

Still-life with Venus de Milo, Broken Plant, Modem and Bubbles, 2016
Pigmented Ink Print
20 x 15.8” Image on 24 x 20” Paper
Edition of 30

Hrvoje Slovenc’s project Croatian Rhapsody: Borderlands (201517) underscores the turbulent past of Slovenc’s homeland during the Croatian War of Independence (199195)and its aftermath, as well as his experiences as a young, queer Croatian immigrant in New York City. Slovenc’s work grapples with dislocation, identity, and ultimately, the permeable borders that govern nations—and us all. This image, taken in Slovenc’s apartment in Brooklyn, is ripe with symbolism: the polka-dot motif repeats throughout the series as a visual representation of mapping and the markings of violence, while the reproduced Venus de Milo sculpture symbolizes the cruelty inflicted on women in Croatia and globally during times of war.

Slovenc’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; and the Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb. He has been included in exhibitions at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia (2016, 2010); the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo (2016); and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (2011); among others. He received his MFA in photography from Yale University in 2010. His work was included in the 2018 exhibition Traversing the Past: Adam Golfer, Diana Matar, Hrvoje Slovenc at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago.