David Maljkovic. Photo: Hrvoje Franjić

 

At the core of the practice of David Maljkovic (*1973) is a regimented exploration of formalist concerns. Whilst narrative is the driving element at the origin of each project, the artist’s varied means of visual implementation consistently and profoundly modify and compromise its supremacy, whether that is through photography, video, sculpture, installation, collage or painting. His work is engaged with historical and technological markers that are characterized by situations both local and universal, allowing the artist to envision new political and conceptual possibilities. In each, the erosion and corruption of memory are the subjects that are left to the viewer.

 

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For his series of collages New Reproductions (2013–15) the artist used the temporal montage techniques of film to combine images that oscillate between fiction and documentary. Using elements sourced solely from his extensive archive, the material is enlarged, torn and layered, creating agglomerations of material that bring to mind decaying posters hastily pasted in public. Color test cards, slides and the out-dated apparatus of film projection add to a sense of a conflict between analogue and digital, past and present. The images in the collages also overflow from the frame, becoming wallpapered directly to the gallery walls or, as exhibited at the 2015 Venice Biennale, attached to aluminum and MDF structures that stand like mysterious columns or rudimentary street furniture. 

Previous works by the artist are often reused as raw material for new work, their content and form recycled as Maljkovic refuses to fix them in one finite state, or time. This cannibalistic impulse was particularly manifest in his four-venue exhibition A Retrospective by Appointment (2015), where he utilized different supports and half-formed constructions such as temporary drywalls and architectural interventions as framing devices in order to create a set of open-ended and interconnected exhibition spaces. This way of working was also a model for his work presented at the Mario Merz Foundation in 2019, utilising objects found within the institution such as broken chairs and a dried out cactus to create a dialogue between his work and Merz’s, altering the function of these items through encasing them in white board and combining them with his own studio elements such as test prints and samples.

In his exhibition Also on View at the Renaissance Society, Chicago (2019), Maljkovic developed this further with previous works redeployed in different proximities – three videos projected and merging into one, or wall-based works melding photography, printmaking and painting – drawing attention to new narratives and qualities the works begin to possess. His work, and the conventional exhibition space in general, is never neutral but rather part of a complex, re-workable scenography, or even a sculpture unto itself that choreographs the viewer’s perspective in the space. 

A recent body of paintings started in 2021 and presented at the Quetzal Art Center, Portugal mark a return to painting for Maljkovic and play with the idea of painting as a guardian of time and the painter’s position as its witness. In previous works, the mediating role of different media is in the background, while the return to the language of painting assumes the right of precedence. Within, a series of motifs act a metaphorical platforms on which they are objectified, becoming signs whose content, as well as their mutual relations, are positioned and moderated precisely by the painting process. Motifs become characters, and their roles change in the construction of painting itself. Still in these new works, Maljkovic continues to work through an introspective instinct and by not fixing his own work in a permanent state, he (re)creates new solutions to work against, if not quite overcome, these impersonal forces.

 

David Maljkovic: In the Pictorial Code
Quetzal Art Centre, Portugal, February 18–August 31, 2023
© David Maljkovic

 

Works
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, April 10–May 9, 2015

David Maljkovic
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, April 10–May 9, 2015
Photo: Stephen White

More views
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015
Powder coated aluminium, MDF, wallpaper
275 × 183 × 98.4 cm
108 1/4 × 72 × 387 3/8 inches

More views
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
A Retrospective by Appointment
Installation view, Studio David Maljkovic, Zagreb, October 27–November 28, 2015

David Maljkovic
A Retrospective by Appointment
Installation view, Studio David Maljkovic, Zagreb, October 27–November 28, 2015
Photo: Hrvoje Franjić

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
A Retrospective by Appointment
Installation view, Studio David Maljkovic, Zagreb, October 27–November 28, 2015

David Maljkovic
A Retrospective by Appointment
Installation view, Studio David Maljkovic, Zagreb, October 27–November 28, 2015
Photo: Hrvoje Franjić

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Also on View
Installation view, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, February 9–April 7, 2019

David Maljkovic
Also on View
Installation view, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, February 9–April 7, 2019
Photo: Useful Art Services

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution
Installation view, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, October 19 2014–January 10, 2015

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution
Installation view, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, October 19 2014–January 10, 2015
Photo: Aurélien Mole

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Glimpses, 2019

David Maljkovic
Glimpses, 2019
Inkjet print on aluminium and epoxy
65.5 × 27 × 27 cm
25 7/8 × 10 5/8 × 10 5/8 inches

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2019

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2019
PS blue back wallpaper, pigments
299.7 × 203.2 cm
118 × 80 inches

More views
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
Mario Merz Prize Third Edition. The finalists, 2019
Installation view, Fondazione Merz, Turin, June 3–October 6, 2019

David Maljkovic
Mario Merz Prize Third Edition. The finalists, 2019
Installation view, Fondazione Merz, Turin, June 3–October 6, 2019
Photo: Renato Ghiazza. Courtesy Fondazione Merz

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
In the Pictorial Code
Installation view, Quetzal Art Center, Portugal, February 18–August 31, 2023

David Maljkovic
In the Pictorial Code
Installation view, Quetzal Art Center, Portugal, February 18–August 31, 2023
Photo: Hrvoje Franjić

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
An Ancient Visitor, 2022

David Maljkovic
An Ancient Visitor, 2022
Oil on canvas
89 × 116 cm
35 × 45 3/4 inches

David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic
In the Pictorial Code
Installation view, Quetzal Art Center, Portugal, February 18–August 31, 2023

David Maljkovic
In the Pictorial Code
Installation view, Quetzal Art Center, Portugal, February 18–August 31, 2023
Photo: Hrvoje Franjić

Details
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, April 10–May 9, 2015
Photo: Stephen White

David Maljkovic
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, April 10–May 9, 2015
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2013
Inkjet prints collaged and mounted on alubond
150 × 100 cm
59 × 39 3/8 inches

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2013
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2013
Inkjet prints collaged and mounted on alubond
150 × 100 cm
59 × 39 3/8 inches

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2013
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Afterform, 2013
Slide, slide projector, plinth
140.3 × 45.1 × 45.1 cm (plinth)
55 1/4 × 17 3/4 × 17 3/4 inches (plinth)

David Maljkovic
Afterform, 2013
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015
Powder coated aluminium, MDF, wallpaper
275 × 183 × 98.4 cm
108 1/4 × 72 × 387 3/8 inches

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015 (detail)

David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2015
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
A Retrospective by Appointment
Installation view, Studio David Maljkovic, Zagreb, October 27–November 28, 2015
Photo: Hrvoje Franjić

David Maljkovic
A Retrospective by Appointment
Installation view, Studio David Maljkovic, Zagreb, October 27–November 28, 2015
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
A Retrospective by Appointment
Installation view, Studio David Maljkovic, Zagreb, October 27–November 28, 2015
Photo: Hrvoje Franjić

David Maljkovic
A Retrospective by Appointment
Installation view, Studio David Maljkovic, Zagreb, October 27–November 28, 2015
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Also on View
Installation view, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, February 9–April 7, 2019
Photo: Useful Art Services

David Maljkovic
Also on View
Installation view, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, February 9–April 7, 2019
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution
Installation view, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, October 19 2014–January 10, 2015
Photo: Aurélien Mole

David Maljkovic
In Low Resolution
Installation view, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, October 19 2014–January 10, 2015
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Glimpses, 2019
Inkjet print on aluminium and epoxy
65.5 × 27 × 27 cm
25 7/8 × 10 5/8 × 10 5/8 inches

David Maljkovic
Glimpses, 2019
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2019
PS blue back wallpaper, pigments
299.7 × 203.2 cm
118 × 80 inches

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2019
David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2019 (detail)

David Maljkovic
Untitled, 2019
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Mario Merz Prize Third Edition. The finalists, 2019
Installation view, Fondazione Merz, Turin, June 3–October 6, 2019
Photo: Renato Ghiazza. Courtesy Fondazione Merz

David Maljkovic
Mario Merz Prize Third Edition. The finalists, 2019
Installation view, Fondazione Merz, Turin, June 3–October 6, 2019
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
In the Pictorial Code
Installation view, Quetzal Art Center, Portugal, February 18–August 31, 2023
Photo: Hrvoje Franjić

David Maljkovic
In the Pictorial Code
Installation view, Quetzal Art Center, Portugal, February 18–August 31, 2023
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
An Ancient Visitor, 2022
Oil on canvas
89 × 116 cm
35 × 45 3/4 inches

David Maljkovic
An Ancient Visitor, 2022
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
In the Pictorial Code
Installation view, Quetzal Art Center, Portugal, February 18–August 31, 2023
Photo: Hrvoje Franjić

David Maljkovic
In the Pictorial Code
Installation view, Quetzal Art Center, Portugal, February 18–August 31, 2023
Details
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Exhibitions at Sprüth Magers
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
Overpaint with Shadows
February 23–March 28, 2024
London

David Maljkovic is known for a multifaceted practice that, through a collagist approach referencing both the works of other artists and his own earlier works and exhibitions, considers individual and collective attitudes toward the complexity of time, whilst also playing with the nature of the gaze. His exhibition Overpaint with Shadows on the third floor of Sprüth Magers, London, presents a series of new paintings and architectural interventions that take the process of overpainting as both their subject and source. For Maljkovic, the act of overpainting is both literal and metaphorical, pertaining not only to the act of painting or to painting itself, but also addressing the content, or rather, the starting point.

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David Maljkovic
April 10–May 9, 2015
London

David Maljkovic is known for multifaceted exhibitions that investigate the erosion of memory and the corruption of information, revealing how ideas can be worn down by the effects of time and technology. For his second show at Sprüth Magers, London, Maljkovic will present a group of inkjet photo collages titled New Reproduction (2013), as well as Afterform (2013), a single slide projection, and a new version of the HD video Out of Projection (2009-2014), a title that the artist has used for a number of previous, related works. The formal principle of collage is key to Maljkovic’s oeuvre: the artist has adopted this method as a way to respond to our defective memories, recombining photographs, films and projected images from his own personal archive. 

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David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

David Maljkovic
A Long Day for the Form
June 28–August 25, 2012
Berlin

A Long Day for the Form showcases David Maljković´s current body of work, in which he gives his own artistic practise a radical restaging, an approach recently explored in shows at Kunsthalle, Basel, Sculpture Centre, New York and Seccession, Vienna. Objects developed as presentation structures for other contexts and contents have been cleared out, emptied and arranged in the gallery as isolated sculptural objects and architectural structures, while small interventions by the artist such as sound and light serve to recall the presence of missing works. By concentrating on these various forms of display, Maljković focuses attention on his own artistic strategies and experiences as well as addressing the act of exhibiting itself.

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David Maljkovic
Recalling Frames
November 5–December 23, 2010
London

The title of David Maljkovic’s solo exhibition can be understood in relation to his current body of work but also indicates a recurring theme in his artistic practice: recalling ideas from the past and analysing their impact on the present. He introduces places, their architectural structures and their underlying concepts in modified pictorial arrangements as a means of determining their current potential. Maljkovic creates these reconstructions by applying the technique of collage to the media of photography and film: by crossfading between different time levels, he also gives them a fictional dimension that transforms them into sites for an alternative future.

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David Maljkovic
David Maljkovic

Rethinking Location
Rosa Barba, Cyprien Gaillard, Andreas Hofer, David Maljkovic, Trevor Paglen, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Sterling Ruby, Paul Sietsema, Taryn Simon, Armando Andrade Tudela, Andro Wekua
May 1–June 21, 2010
Berlin

Evolving from the work of twelve conceptual artists, filmmakers and photographers presenting alternate interpretations of fictional geographies, imaginary sites and "mash-up" destinations, the exhibition Rethinking Location reconsiders the notion of location. In an era characterized by a rapidly changing perception of time and space due to ever increasing mobility, migration and globalization, our understanding of what a location is has significantly transformed.

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David Maljkovic
November 20, 2009–January 16, 2010
Berlin

The artist’s practice engages with the heritage of modern utopias, both in its theoretical and practical manifestations. His films, drawings, sculptures and installations often evolve around the potential of monuments and pavilions built during a period of optimism in former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s that have now been neglected or forgotten. Maljkovic resuscitates such former memorials by turning them into sites for alternative activities, often carried out by members of his own generation. Evolving around two films and a series of collages the exhibition focuses on two architectural installations, confronting the viewer with a seemingly forgotten or invisible ‘heritage’- one that is not presently perceived as valuable or legitimate.

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David Maljkovic
Press

Die Heimat, eine zerrissene Welt
Tagblatt, article by Brigitte Schmid-Gugler, February 26, 2014

The Future is an Empty Space
Flash Art, article by Nick Aikens, November/December 2013

Critics’ Picks: David Maljković
Artforum, article by Jacquelyn Davis

David Maljković
Art Review, article by Oliver Basciano, October 2013

David Maljković “Sources in the Air” at GAMeC, Bergamo
Mousse Magazine

David Maljković
Frieze, article by Bettina Brunner, January 1, 2012

David Maljković at Sprüth Magers London
Aesthetica Magazine, review by Charles Danby, January 4, 2011

Biography

David Maljkovic (*1973, Rijeka) lives and works in Zagreb. Selected solo exhibitions include Quetzal Art Center, Portugal (2023), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (2020), Renaissance Society, Chicago (2019), Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, VOX Centre de l’Image Contemporaine, Montreal (both 2016), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014), Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2014), Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2013), CAC-Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius (2013), Kunsthalle Basel (with Latifa Echakhch, 2012), Sculpture Center, New York (with Lucy Skaer, 2012), Secession, Vienna (2011–2012), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2009), Kunstverein Hamburg (2007) and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2007). Selected group exhibitions include Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Fondazione Merz, Turin, MoMA, New York (all 2019), Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, ICA, Boston (both 2018), Mumok, Vienna (2016), Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (2015), Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2014), MAXXI Museum, Rome (2013), La Triennale, Paris (2012), Bucharest Biennale 5 (2012), Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2011–2012), Arnolfini, Bristol (2011), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (2011) and the 29th Bienal de São Paulo (2010). He was included in the 56th Venice Biennale (2015).

Education
2003–04 Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam
1998–99 Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Multimedia Alternative
1996–2000 Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Department of Painting
1993–96 Faculty of Philosophy, University of Rijeka, Art Department
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
2019 Mario Merz Prize, 3rd edition, Fondazione Merz, Torino, IT - nominee
2018 DAAD, Berlin, DE
2011 Augarten Contemporary, Artist in Residence, Vienna, AT
2010 International Contemporary Art Prize Diputacio de Castello, ES
Croatian Association of Artists Award, Zagreb, HR
2009 IASPIS, Stockholm, SE
ARCO Prize for Young Artists, Madrid, ES
2007 International Residence at Recollets, Paris, FR
Kunstzeitraum, Artist in Residence, Munich, DE
2006–07 KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Studio Program, Berlin, DE
2002 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, FR
36th Zagreb Salon Award, Zagreb, HR
Filip Trade Award, Zagreb, HR
Public Collections
Centre Pompidou, Paris
CA2M Centro de Arte Dos De Mayo, Madrid
David Roberts Foundation, London
De Bruin-Hejn Collection, Amsterdam
EACC Espai d’art contemporani de Castello
ENEA Righi Collection
Espacio 1414, Santurce
EVN Collection, Maria Enzerdorf
Filip Trade Collection, Zagreb
Fonds municipal d'art contemporain, Ville de Paris
FRAC - Ile-de-France - Le Plateau, Paris
FRAC des Pays de la Loire
GOMA - Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
Kadist art Foundation, Paris
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz
LA CAIXA Foundation Contemporary Art Collection, Barcelona
Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
MUDAM Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
MUMOK, Vienna
MUSAC, Leon
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka
Pomeranz Collection, Vienna
Rialto 6, Lisboa
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Tate, London
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis