JELENA BOGDANIĆ
VENDING MACHINE
4.-24.2.2026.
KARAS GALLERY

On Wednesday, 4th of February Jelena Bogdanić opens her solo exhibition entitled Vending Machine at 7 pm in Karas Gallery (Ulica kralja Zvonimira 58).

In her forward, Mihaela Zajec emphasizes:
“Bogdanić’s Vending Machine is therefore neither the first nor certainly the last attempt to explain the world from the perspective of one’s own and the general artistic role and position, yet it remains one of the most direct expressions of this endeavour in contemporary Croatian art. It is an “installation” that approaches the theme both literally and with ironic distance, absurdist and ethical in its emphasis on contradictions, while simultaneously blurring their boundaries and frameworks.
Essentially, this self-service machine is a reflection of modern and contemporary society, its need for the quick and easy, for technological advancement and optimisation, for efficiency and consumption, but also for a return to simpler times. By subversively appropriating this proto-robot creature, the artist presents her sculptural works as equally hollowed-out content, but with the aim of opening a dialogue. A dialogue about time, about society, about artistic value, about apathy.”

PREFACE

Biography:
Jelena Bogdanić (1998, Zagreb) graduated in 2022 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Art Education Department, in the class of Associate Professor Vlasta Žanić and co-mentor Professor Ines Krasić. She spent the fifth semester of her studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, in the class of Mileta Prodanović, as part of the Erasmus+ exchange programme. Through objects and installations, she explores the materiality, aesthetics, and poetics of single-use plastic, achieving its unpredictable transformations through melting. She has exhibited in several group exhibitions in Zagreb, Labin, and Dublin. She is currently employed as a teacher at the School of Applied Arts and Design.

The exhibition will be open during the period from 4. to 24.2.2026.

Working hours of Karas Gallery
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 4pm – 8pm
Tuesday, Saturday 10am – 1pm
On Sundays and Mondays closed.
___
http://karasarthub.eu
Organizer: HDLU
With the support of: Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb