Ivana Tkalčić is a Croatian visual artist whose practice moves between art, science, ecology, and technology. Her work explores how humans relate to their environment, memory, and systems of knowledge. Through installations, research-based projects, performance, and video, she creates spaces for reflection on vulnerability, responsibility, and coexistence. She joins Studio 88 as an Artist-in-Residence as part of the Reviving Nature program in February 2026. The art residency has been supported by Ministry of Culture and Media, Republic of Croatia, EU.
Ivana Tkalčić holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and completed part of her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich through an exchange program. Alongside her artistic education, she earned a degree in Economics, specialising in tourism. This interdisciplinary background strongly informs her artistic approach, allowing her to navigate both conceptual and structural thinking.
Her work has been presented internationally in solo and group exhibitions across Europe and beyond. Selected solo exhibitions include Utopian Heterotopia at the Richter Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, and Astronaut(s) without a spaceship at Art Space Palmera in Bergen, Norway. She has participated in major international exhibitions and research-based projects such as the OSTRALE Biennale in Dresden, Worlds of Networks at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and myriad, re|thread in Stockholm.
Ivana has taken part in numerous prestigious residencies, including Art Omi in the United States, PARADISE AIR in Japan, Kvitbrakka AiR in Norway, and research programs connected to the European Commission and Goethe-Institut. Her work has been recognized with several awards, including the HPB Grand Prix Award at the 35th Youth Salon in Zagreb and inclusion in the Contemporary Art Collection of the European Parliament.
In addition to her artistic practice, she has worked as a project manager, researcher, and curator within academic and cultural institutions, often focusing on interdisciplinary collaboration between art, science, and society.
Ivana Tkalčić’s artistic practice exists at the intersection of art, science, and technology. She approaches the medium as fluid rather than fixed, choosing forms and materials based on the needs of each idea. Her process is investigative and experimental, often playful, and open to unexpected outcomes.
Collaboration plays an important role in her work. She frequently works with scientists, institutions, and local communities, exploring themes such as archives, databases, memory, identity, and the boundaries between realities. Personal memories, collected objects, and research materials often become starting points for speculative narratives.
A central focus of her work is the relationship between humans and their environment. Through ecological and ethical perspectives, she examines how systems of exploitation, control, and expansion—such as space exploration—mirror our treatment of the Earth. Concepts like terraforming are used as metaphors, proposing a shift from extraction toward regeneration and care.
Through immersive installations, performative methods, and participatory processes, Ivana aims to create situations that encourage audiences to reconsider their relationship with the world they inhabit and the systems that shape it.
During her residency at Studio 88 Artist Residency in Doi Saket, Ivana will continue developing her ongoing project EarthSkin: The Ground as Human Skin. This project explores the metaphorical connection between the Earth’s surface and human skin, focusing on vulnerability, resilience, and ecological interdependence.
Studio 88’s rural setting near Chiang Mai offers an important context for this work. Ivana is particularly interested in how local landscapes, materials, and ecological practices can influence the next phase of the project. She plans to engage with local artists, craftspeople, and traditional knowledge systems, allowing these encounters to shape new directions in her research and artistic process.
Rather than focusing on a fixed outcome, Ivana will use the residency period for experimentation, observation, and material exploration. She sees this time as an opportunity to listen to the rhythms of the environment and to reflect on how the land records human presence, care, and damage—much like skin carries memory.
Through this residency, Ivana hopes to deepen her investigation into how art can act as a bridge between ecological awareness, scientific thinking, and embodied experience. Studio 88’s emphasis on process, reflection, and exchange closely aligns with her practice, supporting a slow and attentive approach to artistic research.
Ivana Tkalčić’s art residency has been supported by Ministry of Culture and Media, Republic of Croatia, EU.
More about Ivana Tkalčić on her website.
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