50 Years Later – Ivan Karlavaris
The Gallery of Matica Srpska is delighted to present the photography exhibition 50 Years Later by Ivan Karlavaris, photographer, photography designer, educator, and donor to the Gallery of Matica Srpska. The opening ceremony will be held on Thursday, 3 September at 8:00 p.m. The opening ceremony will feature addresses by Dr Tijana Palkovljević Bugarski, Director of the Gallery of Matica Srpska, Professor Emeritus Branimir Karanović, Professor of Photography, Ervin Dubrović, MA, art historian, and Professor Emerita Irina Subotić, art historian. The exhibition will be opened by Ivica Lukanović, Prefect of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.
The exhibition 50 Years Later looks back on five decades of Ivan Karlavaris’s artistic and educational work, whose professional career is inextricably linked to the development of photography and photography education in Novi Sad and the wider region. His work encompasses various fields of photography, from fine-art and applied photography to design and visual communication, and is distinguished by aesthetic thoughtfulness, technical precision, and a profound commitment to the ways in which a photographic image communicates with the viewer.
A particularly important aspect of Karlavaris’s career is his educational work. Since 1974, he has been a photography professor at the “Bogdan Šuput” School of Design in Novi Sad, where he has passed on his knowledge and experience to generations of young artists, encouraging them to understand photography not merely as a technique, but also as a space for personal and artistic expression. Since 1996, he has worked as an associate at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, and since 2002 he has been involved in establishing the Photography study programme, laying the foundations for higher education in this field. Since 2004, he has also collaborated with the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka.
Throughout his career, Karlavaris has presented numerous solo exhibitions in Kastav, Novi Sad, Opatija, Futog, and Kaluga, while since 1976 he has regularly participated in numerous group exhibitions. His work has earned him a number of awards and recognitions, including first prizes in Yugoslav competitions for monumental sculpture and design, the Provincial Award for Educational Work in the Visual Arts, and the Crystal Plaque of the World Biennial of Student Photography/Poster.
Born in 1947 in Crvenka, Ivan Karlavaris continued his education in Novi Sad and later specialised in utilitarian photography in Germany. Over five decades of work, he has developed a distinctive artistic approach to photography while also making a significant contribution to the development of generations of photographers and designers. His work demonstrates photography as a complex medium that encompasses technical knowledge, visual thinking, and an understanding of the broader context in which the photographic image is created and communicated.
The exhibition 50 Years Later is therefore not merely a retrospective overview of one artist’s career to date. It is also a testimony to five decades of dedication to photography, education, and visual culture, as well as to an individual whose artistic and educational work has left a profound mark on the cultural scene of Novi Sad and the wider region.
The exhibition will be on view until 13 September 2026.
