The meeting also provided an opportunity to present his new monograph, “Veliki poklon gradu Vukovaru,” and discuss future shared cultural projects.
The Director of the Croatian Heritage Foundation, Zdeslav Milas, M.Sc., received the Croatian-Canadian painter Ante Sardelić, for a working visit, who, on the occasion, handed over his newly published monumental art monograph entitled “Veliki poklon gradu Vukovaru”. Director Milas congratulated the artist and thanked him for the impressive book, which spans over 360 pages in a large encyclopedic format and describes, with pictures and poetic notes, the artist’s reminiscences about his homeland and Vukovar as a beacon of courage and freedom. The artist Sardelić invited the Director and the interested public to the promotion of his book, to be held in the painter’s Mediterranean native region in Blato on Korčula on July 20, 2026.
CHF employees Vesna Kukavica and Snježana Radoš also participated in the working meeting with Director Milas. The painter recalled the successful cooperation with Matica in the 1990s and the “Eternal Homeland” exhibition cycle, and Director Milas suggested continuing the cooperation next year, when the painter Sardelić will hold an exhibition of previously unreleased drawings and memoirs.
As a reminder, Ante Sardelić Kraljević is a renowned Croatian-Canadian academic artist. He was born in 1947 in Blato on Korčula. He has lived in Toronto for 54 years and has exhibited around the world in prestigious galleries. Sardelić travels the world, recording his experiences with brush and chisel through his vivid imagination. At the same time, he is both a cosmopolitan and a patriot, learning to admire all those he has met while traveling and painting in various parts of the world – without neglecting his deep-rooted Croatian identity. He graduated from the School of Applied Arts in Split in 1967, and the Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Sculpture, in Zagreb in 1971. Since 1972, he has lived in Toronto, Canada, where he works as an independent professional artist in sculpture, graphics, painting, and poetry. Since 1969, he has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums in metropolises around the world: Canada, USA, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Venezuela, Poland, Puerto Rico, Indonesia, France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain, England, Italy, Slovenia, Belgium, Japan, Korea, Germany, Croatia, Brazil, Australia, Egypt. Particularly impressive were exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Mexico City, Caracas, Bogotá, Ottawa, Hamilton, Toronto, Canberra, Fremantle, Frankfurt, Windsor, Melbourne, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santiago, Punta Arenas, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Hamburg, Pécs, Seattle, Lima, Washington, Jakarta, Cleveland, Brasilia, Rome, Cairo and ancient Egyptian Alexandria. Since 1987, he has participated in dozens of international exhibitions and biennales. With support from the Canadian government, he mounted a traveling solo exhibition in Croatia and BiH in 1998. In 1989, the Canadian-Croatian Artists Society proclaimed him Artist of the Year, and in 1995, the President of the Republic of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman, awarded him the Order of the Croatian Danica for exceptional merits in culture. In 1997, under the auspices of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and President Franjo Tuđman, the first exhibition from Ante Sardelić Kraljević’s ten-year cycle, “Eternal Homeland”, was held at the Mimara Museum in Zagreb, after which it was exhibited in prestigious exhibition spaces around the world. Croatian Television produced a documentary about the “Eternal Homeland” cycle, focusing on the artist Ante Sardelić Kraljević’s life in the diaspora. In 2003, Sardelić installed, in the shrine in Blato on Korčula, the life path of the blessed nun Blessed Marija of Jesus Crucified Petković in an 8.5-square-meter stone relief. In 2005, as an invited guest artist at the International Biennale in Lima, Peru, he showcased the “Eternal Homeland” exhibition. He crafted the stone relief for the altar of the Croatian Church in Toronto, Canada, in 2006, and the cycle of new works “Cultural Parallels” has been exhibited in museums and galleries on all continents since 2008. In 2009, he created and donated a stone relief sculpture (150 x 300 cm), “Vukovar – A Beacon of Courage and Freedom”, to the City of Vukovar, where it was placed in front of the entrance to the Memorial Home at Ovčara. He was awarded the Golden Coat of Arms of the Municipality of Blato (2015) for exceptional merits in promoting the Republic of Croatia and his native Blato throughout the world; the artist highlights that it is his favorite medal. He is an active member of the World Peace Gong movement, creating numerous monumental sculptures in iron as part of Gong’s present of the Republic of Indonesia to the Republic of Croatia and the City of Vukovar. He is preparing a five-meter-high bronze sculpture, “Monument of Homeland Unity,” for his native Blato. His pieces are in galleries, museums, and private collections worldwide.
Text: Vesna Kukavica / Photo: Marijana Žeželj
