Joining the artist at the opening of her Two Homelands exhibition, opened by the Chilean Ambassador to Croatia, were here parents and sister from Chile, relatives from London and professors and friends from the Faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb.
An exhibition entitled Two Homelands featuring the work of young Chilean of Croatian descent Katarina Abović Oyarzun opened at the Croatian Heritage Foundation on 8 November. The paintings on exhibit include those created during her stay here and depict everyday life in Zagreb and works created five years ago in Chile (five group portraits) during her studies of the visual arts and for her diploma (four landscapes) at the Catholic University as memories of Chile.
Those on hand were greeted by CHF director Marin Knezović and by Ljerka Galic, head of our emigrant heritage department, who presented the artist and her work. She in particular greeted Zagreb artist Kristina Jeič, who lent her easel to Katarina so that she might paint while in Zagreb and artist Tomo Periš from Rijeka, who presented the young artist with his easel as a gift.
Those on hand were also greeted in Croatian by the author of the exhibition Katarina Abović, for whom this was a very special evening as her parents Nicolas and Marcela and sister Franica had travelled from Chile to be with her at the opening. Also on hand were relatives from London and many friends and professors from the Faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. The exhibition opening was moderated by Nives Antoljak from the CHF culture department.
On hand to open the exhibition was Chilean Ambassador to Croatia German Ibarra. Also on hand was M. Munivrana, secretary of the parliamentary committee on Croats outside of the Republic of Croatia and Viktor Škovrlja on behalf of the State Office for Croatians Abroad. As a memento of her first exhibition in Croatia the young artist presented the CHF director with a gift of her painting of the CHF headquarters.
Katarina Abović was born in Santiago in 1988 where she completed her studies of the visual arts at the Catholic University and went on to earn her post-graduate degree in art pedagogy at the Gabriela Mistral University. She has exhibited her work at group exhibitions in Antofagasta and Santiago, and has been in Zagreb since the beginning of the year thanks to a Croatian language study scholarship at the Faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb.
Text by: Željka Lešić; Photos by: Hrvoje Salopek