ANTE SARDELIC KRALJVIC
Croatian-Canadian sculptor, painter, and printmaker was born on February 3, 1947 in Blato, on the island of Korcula in Croatia. He graduated from the School of Applied Arts in Split in 1968 and from the Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Sculpture in Zagreb (he studied under Krsto Hegedusic, Grga Antunac, Valerje Micheli) in 1971. In 1972 he moved to Canada and settled in Toronto where he still lives and works as a
professional artist.
Already as a student Sardelic mounted one-man exhibitions. He worked on reliefs and mosaics for public places. He travelled abroad to study. Initially he leaned towards sculpture in stone, wood and bronze, as well as mosaics. Vitality of movement in sculpture and dynamism of colour in printing were characteristic of this period. On arrival to Canada Sardelic’s palette propelled in the direction of new surroundings, new inspirations, using acrylic in which the harmony of organic geometry and mythological
symbolism first appeared. Similar developments occurred in his sculpture. In 1976 Sardelic worked on murals. He experimented with new materials in graphics and painting, discovering individual technical means for his artistic expression. The presence of erotic forms in a vivid polyphony of
colour marked the passionate expression of the new environment and time, thus becoming the focal point of the cosmography of his perception.
Since 1978 Sardelic has often spent time in the United States, Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela, where he came into contact with the ancient cultures of North and South America. This experience is reflected in his work’s search for new growth in the form of evolving expressiveness by capturing and arousing global coexistence in a happy union of man’s primordial intuitions and the flow of the universal energy of life.
Sardelic has been exhibiting continually since 1969 in museums and galleries throughout the world, including Canada, United States, Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Poland, Indonesia, France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Slovenia, Belgium, Japan, Korea, Germany, Croatia and Australia, by participating in many international exhibitions and biennials where he
received numerous awards and honours. To date he has had seventy six one-man exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Mexico City, Caracas, Bogota, Ottawa, Hamilton(Canada), Toronto, Canberra, Fremantle, Frankfurt, Windsor (Canada), Melbourne, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santiago, Punta Arenas, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Hamburg, Pech, Seattle, Lima Washington, Jakarta, Cleveland, Brasilia, and he participated in over one hundred and fifty group exhibitions.
With the support of the Canadian Council and National Museums of Canada in 1984 he mounted a large one-man exhibition in the Art Gallery of Hamilton. In 1987 he participated in eleven international exhibitions and biennials. With the sponsorship of the Government of Canada he put on a comprehensive one-man travelling exhibition in 1988 in the museums and galleries of Croatia and Bosina and Hercegovinia. In 1989 he was chosen Artist of the Year by the Canadian-Croatian Artist’s Society in Toronto. He
also executed a large mosaic commissioned by a private collector. In 1994 he spent a short period of time in Australia. In 1995 the Government of the Republic of Croatia awarded him the Order of the Croatian Danica for outstanding merits in the field of culture.
Ante Sardelic is a member of various artist societies throughout the world. He is included in numerous international publications and “Who is Whos”. He has been writing poetry since his student days. The ten years of his artistic endeavour have been dedicated to the project The Eternal Homeland. The first exhibition of The Eternal Homeland took place at the Museum Mimara in Zagreb, 1997. The event was held under the high patronage of the President of the Republic of Croatia Dr. Franjo Tudman and the Croatian Parliament. At that time Croatian Television produced a documentary on The Eternal Homeland and the life of the artist.
In 2003 Ante Sardelic completed eight and a half square meters stone relief mural “The life Journey of Blessed Marija of the Crucified Jesus Petkovic” in her Santuary in Blato, Croatia. In 2005 he was invited to
participate at First International Paint Biennial in Lima, Peru, as the guest artist with the one-man exhibition Eternal Homeland. In 2006 he completed a stone relief for the altar for the Croatian Church, Toronto, Canada.
Sardelic’s work can be found in galleries, museums, and private collections the world over.