BIOGRAPHY

Croatian artist Branka Ridicki is best known for the itinerary and cartographic elements in her paintings, marked with fragments of urban architecture through color and shape. This stems from the cultural framework she grew up in, within the historical urban architecture of her native town, Zadar. 

Branka has worked as an independent documentary film producer and film-maker since 1991, and began her career as an artist in 2001. She preserved the inclination toward urban architecture and reinforced it in the context of multicultural experiences, throughout her constant relocations to New York, Cairo, Colombo and Delhi.

When Branka writes, and rewrites, she enacts the tracing process that stems from the foundation banks of her memory; all the places she has seen, felt, visited and experienced wholly. Entire cities, walkways, pathways, rivers, fields, hills, mountains, castles, houses and skies – all of which are recognized and registered through the interlinked chromatic processes of the eye and her memory.

In Faces of Town, her paintings develop the theme of the town as the place where space and time are perceived on a small scale. She combines different viewpoints: a flat approach appearing like a view from the sky while the houses are viewed from the front. With this approach, she gains a disengaged space which opens the way to different variations of one story. By addressing public spaces through poetic and creative play concerning the concept of the town, and exploring the ten-millennium-old experience of urban living, Branka questions the position of the individual in today's increasingly migrational global society.

Branka has represented Croatia at the 10th International Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt (2007). Major exhibitions of Branka's work have been held in Vladimir Filakovac Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia (2016); Museum of Ancient Glass, Zadar, Croatia (2010) and Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum, Cairo, Egypt (2007). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions including International Visual Arts Exhibition 2017, JDA Perera Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka (2017); 'Untitled', Barefoot Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka (2016); 'Time Travel – The Changing Patterns of Culture – Pettah', Old Town Hall, Pettah, Colombo, Sri Lanka (2013); El Hakeeba (The Bag), workshop and exhibition, Alexandria Atelier, Alexandria, Egypt (2007); 'Connecting People, Connecting Cultures', the United Nations Headquarters, New York, (2006).

Branka is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists.

Branka earned her BA and MA in History of Art and Italian Literature and Language at the University of Zagreb.