Marko Zubak: The Creativity of Independence
An artist’s independence through 3 lives in 3 pairs of cities, and a plethora of creations
A Love of Independence
Marko Zubak loves his life. He stays far away from interest groups and politics, choosing to rely on himself and his close circle of family and friends. “It’s not easy to be independent, especially as an artist in a country where an art market doesn’t exist and politics control the culture and create eligible artists.”
It’s not easy to be independent, especially as an artist in a country where an art market doesn’t exist and politics control the culture and create eligible artists.
Given his infinite list of accomplishments, it seems he’s chosen the right path. Traditional paintings, sculptures, photography, animation, stop-motion, digital images, and experiments with video are only the tip of the iceberg.
Zubak is also quite the unique artist since the work he features on MakersPlace isn’t just digital. He takes us further down the iceberg and offers his collectors crypto paper toys. Purchasing a digitally artful presentation of the toy also gets you “exclusive access to a pdf file containing its visual code, which, in order to materialize, has to be printed, cut out and constructed.”
3 Lives in 3 Pairs of Cities
Zubak’s early years were spent both in Zagreb, his place of birth, as well as on the “happy island of happy people” called Rab where both his artistic parents owned a gallery. His art schooling was divided between Bologna, Italy and Barcelona, Spain. With such a contrast in experience, he felt as if he had lived two mini-lives within his primary life. Now, with his mother’s gallery in Rovinj, he splits his time creating and working there, with the other half of the year spent back in this birthplace of Zagreb — coming full circle, and now more independent than ever.
This freedom of independence allows Zubak to use unique processes which will be seen in two exhibitions in Croatia this year (2020). He plans to apply augmented reality to his papertoy scenes, one of which will feature looped AR videos made with a stop-motion technique. He’ll also include blockchain art along with a social money he has created called Bloody Percent ($BPC).
A New Original Artwork: ETH Trippin
Inspired by Sage of Byzantium, Zubak’s first ETH sage tokenized on MakersPlace, comes his first-ever analogue animation, ETH Trippin, featuring the Sage of Ethereum.
The Sage of Ethereum is a machine-cut, small paper sculpture of nine different colors cycling in classic stop-motion animation against a hand-painted background. Zubak achieves his goal of a visual “trippin’” effect and makes a point that even analog creations with no post-production can be recorded on the blockchain — reversing the philosophy that only digitally native creations hold that place.
This guardian of ETH is also said to reverse the luck of the crypto whale wannabes. Zubak claims that if you have the Sage of Ethereum in your digital wallet, it will make your Ether multiply. Wouldn’t that be a trip?? Guess you’ll have to make a winning bid to see if it comes true!
Discover Zubak’s full collection of Crypto Paper Toys and Follow him to be notified of his newest artworks >>
Top Selling Pieces
Accomplishments
EDUCATION:
• Accademia delle belle arti di Bologna, Italy
• Facultad de Bellas Artes de Barcelona, SpainSELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
• 2006. Exhibition of paintings, Gallery Iris, Barcelona 2010. Paintings and installations exhibition, gallery ‘Izidor Kršnjavi’, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2010. Paintings and video exhibition, gallery Tir, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
• 2010. ‘ye-boT initiative’ show, paper toy project, ULUPUH gallery, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2011. ‘Un monde aux frontières du réel’, paintings and sculptures, CovArt Gallery, Luxembourg
• 2011. ‘Paper Toys im OK’ — NEXTCOMIC festival:
1. room: II LOVE mag & ye-boT initiative show, video projection: “Thought control”
2.room: “St. Bugbot”, installation and scenography for stop motion video, OK Offenes Kulturhaus OÖ, Linz, Austria
• 2016. PAPER TOYS, cardboard sculptures, Österr. Papiermachermuseum, Laakirchen-Steyrermühl, Austria
• 2017. PAPERBOTS, Österr. Papiermachermuseum, Laakirchen-Steyrermühl, Austria
• 2017. Paperbots: Terms of surrender, MMC Ulika, Bale, Croatia
• 2017. MLIBTY Shadows & Papertoys Show, Lucca Comics&Games 2017, Lucca, Italy
• 2018. BLOCKHEADS: DISORIENTED SERIES, ULUPUH gallery, Zagreb, CroatiaOTHER EXHIBITIONS:
• 2005. “Imprezona”, gallery Miscelanea, Barcelona, Spain 2007. Alpok-Adria-Pannonia International art exhibition, Castillo Batthyany, Körmend, Hungary
• 2008. “YEBOMAYCU project”, Prostor Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia (solo)
•2009. “Paper Toy and Pop Out Show”, Pink Hobo Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• 2009. “Bugbots”, MM centar, Studentski Centar, Zagreb, Croatia (solo)
• 2009. “FabFibe show”, paper toy show, Sculpture Square, Singapore
• 2010. Paintings, Biblioteca Pública Municipal de Orxeta, Orxeta, España (solo)
• 2011. “Paper Toy II”, Pink Hobo Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
• 2011. “Petits Formats, grandes Signatures”, CovArt Gallery, Luxembourg
• 2012. Galerija Greta, Zagreb, »video: St. Bugbot (solo), Croatia
• 2013. Annual exhibition of HDLU members, Home of HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2013. 2nd BIENNALE OF PAINTING / VIENNA CALLING, Home of HDLU — Meštrović Pavilion, Zagreb, Croatia 2014. BORROWORROB: In Search of Symmetry, Home of HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia 2015. MLIBTY Shadows, In-situ event at Siva galerija, Medika, Zagreb, Croatia (solo)
• 2015. Urban Paper Collective Show, Sauerland-Museum, Arnsberg, Germany
• 2015. Annual exhibition of HDLU members, Home of HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2016. OTOTOY: Art toys, Centro Cultural F., Medellin/ Bogota, Colombia
• 2016. Art colony Rovinj 2016, Rovinj Heritage Museum, Croatia
• 2016. Urban Paper Collective Show, Sauerland-Museum, Arnsberg, Germany
• 2016. Annual exhibition of HDLU members, Home of HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2016. The 33rd YOUTH SALON — BUDGET, Home of HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2017. (dis)placement exhibition, Ugly Duck, London, UK 2017. Art colony Rovinj 2017, Rovinj Heritage Museum, Croatia
• 2017. Annual exhibition of HDLU members, Home of HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2017. (dis)placement exhibition II, Jacaranda, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
• 2017. STROKE ART FAIR 2017, Munich, Germany
• 2017. “A journey into the Universe of Art Toys”, Topic Puppets Museum, Tolosa, Spain
• 2018. “Nur kelbetti Astana”, international painting exhibition, National museum of Kazakhstan, Astana, Kazakhstan
• 2018. Art colony Rovinj 2018, Rovinj Heritage Museum, Croatia
• 2019. Annual exhibition of HDLU members, Home of HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia
• 2019. Art colony Rovinj 2019, Rovinj Heritage Museum, CroatiaCRYPTOART EVENTS:
• 2019. Radical X Change Detroit: DADA.art collective Channel auction, Detroit, USA
• 2019. International Digital Art Festival 2019 (iDAF), Manchester, UK
• 2019. RAREAF 2, NYC blockchain week, USA
• 2019. Ethereal Summit- DADA.art collective: Soul in the machine, New York, USA
• 2019. Devcon 5: DAOSaka, Osaka, Japan
• 2019. UNIQLO TATE LATES NAM JUNE PAIK: Random Access, DADA.art collective, interactive live art performance at the Tate Modern, London, UK
• 2020. NFT_NYC, Non-fungible token even, New York, USA
• 2020. ETH Denver, USAWORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
National museum of Kazakhstan, Astana, Kazakhstan (paintings)SCREENINGS ON FILM & VIDEO FESTIVALS:
• 2010. VIDEOMEDEJA, International Video Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad: »video: Yebo studio
• 2012. NextComic Festival, OK Offenes Kulturhaus OÖ, Linz, Austria, »video: St. Bugbot
• 2012. Athens Video*/Art Festival, Greece, »video: St. Bugbot
• 2012. 3rd Urban Arts Festival, Angers-Paris-Brussels, »video: St. Bugbot
• 2013. Baranja Animation Festival (BAF!), Croatia, »video: No place for paper toys
• 2013. Animateka 10th IAFF, Ljubljana, Slovenia, »video: No place for paper toysAWARDS:
• 2008. “Take away”, custom paper toy contest: Best paper toy (Spain, traveling show)
• 2012. 3rd Artaq Urban Arts awards, France, for video catgegory: »video: St. Bugbot
• 2014. Grisia, Open Air Art Exhibition, Croatia (purchase award) 2019. ULUPUH award for best solo exhibition in 2018.
• 2019. Honorary member of ULUPUHPUBLICATIONS:
• Kontejner #8, magazine, Slovenia, 2008.
• ALITTLEBEAT, magazine, Spain, 2009.
• Computer Arts Projects, magazine, UK (#126, August 2009.)
• “Papercraft” book, Design and Art with Paper, R.Klanten, S.Ehmann, B.Meyer. Published by Gestalten, Berlin, Germany, 2009.
• “Paper Toy Monsters” book, by Brian Castelforte, Workman publishing, New York, USA, 2010.
• Artaq bookzine 2012, Artaq Urban Arts awards 2012.
• “Paper Robots” book, by Nick Knite, h.f.ullmann publishing, Potsdam, Germany, 2013.
