Exploring the Relation between Space and Form
« Don’t ask what the work is.
Rather, see what the work does. »
-Eva Hesse
During my stay in Zagreb, I had a chance to meet Mak Melcher, a multi-award-winning Croatian sculptor of the younger generation, and professor at his former School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb, that he also graduated from in 2003, in the department of Ceramics. During his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Mak worked as an assistant to the sculptor Marija Ujević. In 2008, he graduated from the Sculpture Department in the class of Professor Miro Vuco. He has honed his craft working at the Ujević Art Foundry as a wax retoucher, collaborating with conservator-restorers in the Hedom company on the restoration of Upper Town façades in Zagreb, and to this day working as an assistant to the sculptor Dalibor Stošić.
During July and August 2019 Mak participated in the artistic residency Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Up to this day, he has held 10 solo-exhibitions and participated in more than 30 group ones. He has also obtained several awards, including “Iva Vraneković” Award – Artist to Artist (2016), 3rd prize of the 32nd Youth Salon (2014), and an equivalent acquisition prize in the competition for the monument to Croatian defenders in Beli Manastir (2011). Mak is also a member of the Croatian Association of Visual Artists (HDLU) since 2009.