On Monday, 21 September, the solo exhibition by the Rab sculptor Vedran Bišić, titled 'Sea, Fish, Boats', opened at the Pik Gallery. The installation presents a selection of assemblages, objects, and spatial installations created by the artist over the past thirty years.
Bišić works with materials found in his immediate local environment. These include pieces of old wooden boats, fishing gear, driftwood, stone, fossils, and other objects marked by the traces of time. Rather than imposing a new form, the artist recognises and follows the existing characteristics of the material, so that cracks, knots, textures, wear, and the traces of the sea's action become an integral part of the artistic expression.
Objects that once had a practical function are thus given a new artistic role, their wear and tear becoming a value that testifies to time, space, and the people who used them. The sea, the coast, the taverns, and the family storerooms are transformed in his work into a kind of source from which a personal artistic universe is created. The exhibition is at the same time deeply personal and connected to the collective experience of the island.
Bišić returns to the formative years he spent on Rab and to the world that shaped him – the world of seafarers, fishermen, boats, and daily life by the sea. The motif of the spur, which appears as a symbol of continuity and unbroken thread, holds a special place in his work. Through it, the artist connects with generations of islanders, but also with his own family heritage, particularly his father, a Rab captain.
Bišić's works often have a playful and almost childlike immediacy. In their simplicity and the combination of found objects, one recognises the child's imagination, but also the deep experience of the artist who has returned to the same motifs and materials for decades. Objects from the past are thus 'reanimated' and move from their previous utilitarian function into the realm of art.
The exhibition 'Sea, Fish, Boats' can be viewed at the Pik Gallery, 3 Ivana Rabljanina, Rab, until 19 October 2026.
