Izvor Pende

Izvor Pende was born and raised in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He began studying sculpture in 1996 at the  Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Pende then moved to study painting at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, receiving his degree in 2002 under Professors Karin Rissa and Markus Lupertz and his masters degree in 2005.

Since 2003, Pende has exhibited his artworks in solo and group exhibitions in Bonn, Munich, Hannover, Dusseldorf and Hamburg in Germany, Chicago in USA, and Eupen, Belgium. In 2005 he won the Ikob – Kunstpreis Nomination and in 2008 the BAT (British American Tobacco) award. In 2010 he had his first solo exhibition in Bacva gallery, Croatian Association of Artists, Zagreb, Croatia. He also had solo exhibitions in 2010 at the Art Workshop Lazareti, Dubrovnik, Croatia, in 2011 at Glyptotheque, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb, Croatia, and in 2014 at the Museum of Modern Art in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

More recently, Pende has focused on his move to pure abstraction, turning away from his early focus on figurative and landscape paintings. In these new abstract artworks, Pende kept references to organic structures and shapes that are evocative of the land. However, he has juxtaposed these elements with more structured forms such as bold stripes and geometric shapes that set up internal tension and dynamic dialogue within the new paintings. In 2016, Pende exhibited his abstract works at the Art Workshop Lazareti, Dubrovnik. He started an artistic dialogue with the German painter Daniel Richter in the project, “Swimming Together”, where the two painters exhibited their paintings along-side one another at several museums and institutions, including in 2017 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Split, Croatia and in 2018 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka.

The works of Izvor Pende are included in the collections of Sammlung Gabriele Henkel, Du¨sseldorf, and at British American Tobacco, Hamburg.