Bojan Šumonja is rightfully one of the best known, most productive and recognised Croatian painters of the past decades. He was born in 1960 in Pula, where he finished the High School of Art and Design. He graduated from the Art Academy in Venice, Department of Sclpture. The artist reached out for an expression in the painting and drawing domain, to which he transferred his dream visions of real forms and symbols. Šumonja won numerous awards for his paintings and exhibited in New York, Venice, Brussels, Vienna, New Orleans, Berlin, and at many other places in Croatia and worldwide. He lives and works in Pula.
Photo: Sebastijan Vojvoda
In the past decade the painters work changed from paintings influenced by the works of German expressionists and his own imagination and interest in the mythical towards works inspired by pop culture, comics and film, and not least, the world around him. He reached mainstream popularity in Croatia with his sheep paintings cycle, which he began at the end of the 2000s.
Critic Branka Benčić about one of Šumonja’s sheep paintings:
“The painting Sheep by Bojan Sumonja resembles some kind of inverted, amazing allegory. The flock of sheep, as the only motif of the work floods the entire surface of the canvas. In the perspective of close and expressed foreground it seems as if the sheep will slip off the edge of the painting and the chosen colours summon up the effect of contrasting black and white, white fleece and black shadow, also present in black and white photography, puts animals in a pastoral setting, thus creating an atmosphere of slight anxiety and uneasiness, insecurity and uncertainty, giving a meaning to the saying ‘the lost sheep.’”
The painter has also had an impact on the exterior and interior design of many well-known Istrian restaurants, taverns, as well as residential and business buildings. If you are visiting Pula, you can meet Bojan at the Poola Gallery at the Kandlerova Street, see an exhibition and buy ceramics, T-shirts and other products featuring his art. You can see more of his art here.
