Sonja Švec Španjol
Selector / Curator
Sonja Švec Španjol was born in Zagreb in 1983. She graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb with a degree in art history and Slovak in 2008, and an additional degree in Museology in 2010. She completed her professional training at the Mestrovic- Atelier in Zagreb and passed the professional exam for museum curatorial title in 2012. Since 2013, she has acted as an independent curator and art critic, having founded a web site:
www.PerceiveArt.com which is a web portal about art that she has been involved in editing the portal.She collaborates with the art magazine Kontura, the literary list for art, culture and science Vijenac and the portal Arteist.
There’s a significant text that she points out: a review of the monograph "Ivo Dulčić" (Vijenac, No. 594), a review of the monography Gordana Bakić (Contour, No. 132), as well as critical reviews of significant exhibitions such as Zlatko Price's retrospective (Vijenac, No. 583).
Also her other involves is in retrospectives of Clement Crncic's Mencius (Wreath, No. 574), Julia Knifer's retrospectives (Wreath, No. 537), Miroslav Kraljević's retrospective (Wreath No. 516/517), exhibitions "Allegory and Arcadia - Ancient Motifs in Art" (Wreath, no. 511), retrospectives of Kuzma Kovačić (Vijenac, No. 500), and the exhibition "Masterpieces from the Picasso Museum in Paris" (Vijenac, No. 498). Since 2018, she has been writing an art column for lifestyle magazine which is called: Grazia. Since 2015, she has been an expert associate and a member of the Expert Council of the Laval Nugent Gallery.
Since 2016 she has been the President of the Arts Council and the ZILIK (Winter Art Colony) in Karlovac. During 2016 and 2017 she acted as a member of the Artistic Council of the PIKTO Gallery and a member of the Artistic Council of the HDLU Zagreb, and as a member of the editorial board at the Zagreb Fine Artists portal. In 2017, she was a member of the jury of the 22nd International Cartoon Exhibition organized by the Croatian Society of Cartoonists, and the author of the conception, a member of the jury and curator of the juried international exhibition of the 4th Triennial of Self-Portrait Self-Portrait organized by the Prica Gallery in Samobor.
In 2018, she organized, conceived and opened a group exhibition on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the Perceive-Art portal at the Zvonimir- Gallery, with a total of 17 artists participating.
In 2019 she is a member of the jury for selection of works at the 2nd International Contemporary Collage Festival KAOS in Kranj, Slovenia, member of the jury for the selection of works and curator of the 2nd Samobor Salon in the Prica Gallery on the topic 'Borders', and member of the Committee for Selection of Works 8 of the Croatian Watercolor Triennial organized by the Slavonski Brod City Art Gallery and the Karlovac City Museum and author of the preface to the 8th HTA, which has been exhibited during the year at the Slavonski Brod -Art Gallery at the Vladimir Becic Art Salon, the Vjekoslav Karas Gallery in Karlovac and the Museum Mimara in Zagreb. Since 2019 she has been a member of the Bunker Gallery Artistic Council within the Bunker Youth Center in Samobor, a member of the Program Council of the Kortil Gallery and a member of the Ideal City Gallery Council. Notable projects include participation in the symposium on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Ivan Generalić's birth in Hlebine in 2014, running ZILIK since 2016, cooperation with the Prizma association on the international Sketchbook Station project, and traveling exhibitions by Ivo Friscic and Ivo Shebal.
in 2017 in collaboration with galleries and museums across Croatia. In the past six years, she has been curating and opening more than 130 exhibitions. She is a member of DPUH and HULU, and since 2018, she has been acting as a member of HZSU.
