Niš · Serbia · Est. 1985
Painter, caricaturist and designer. Four disciplines, one hand — drawing that moves between canvas, page and room.
Born in Niš in 1985, Blatnik trained there and works there still — a member of ULUPUDS, the Association of Applied Arts Artists and Designers of Serbia. His caricature has been recognised by the Yomiuri Shinbun in Japan and by the City of Belgrade, while his painting keeps the same taut, graphic line: saturated grounds, figures held firm by outline. He has shown in Pirot, Knjaževac, Zaječar and Prague, and collaborates with his father, the painter Aleksandar Blatnik, under the shared title Blatnik & Blatnik.
§ Note
"I'm inspired by people who are no longer with us but who left a mark on the planet — and by new ones, like Novak Đoković, who is truly a kind of legend."
— Ivan Blatnik, on his father's Wikipedia entry[1]
Ivan Blatnik was born in Niš in 1985 and trained there, studying at the Faculty of Fine Arts before qualifying as an interior designer.[1] He grew up inside a working studio — his father is the painter Aleksandar Blatnik — and the two have exhibited together under the shared title Blatnik & Blatnik.[6] Niš remains his base: he paints, draws and designs from the city, and a member of ULUPUDS, he keeps a practice that runs from canvas to printed page to fitted room.
The caricaturist's line is the spine of everything. Figures are held firm by heavy outline and set against saturated, flattened grounds, so colour reads as temperature rather than decoration. Recurring motifs — the clown, the saint, the coloured sphere — return across cycles, restated rather than repeated. The result sits between pop graphics and painting proper: warm, exact and unmistakably drawn by hand.
Key highlights
1985
Born in Niš, Serbia
ULUPUDS
Member, Association of Applied Arts Artists & Designers of Serbia
Yomiuri
Yomiuri Shinbun caricature laureate, Japan
×3
Special awards, City of Belgrade
§ 02 — Selected works
A four-panel Klovn cycle from the studio — the same figure repainted across four grounds, released by the artist in July 2026 as the visual signature of his solo show Niš Art Series.[8] Older studio and auction works can be swapped in from the admin page as new photography arrives.
Studio paintings on canvas and paper. Blatnik works between figuration and geometry — clowns, saints, coloured spheres — set against washed grounds.
The medium that first shaped Ivan's hand and brought him international recognition, including the Yomiuri Shinbun prize in Japan and three special awards from the City of Belgrade.
Book design, posters, visit cards, brochures and catalogues — a working commercial practice threaded through the studio.
A trained interior designer (Faculty of Fine Arts, Niš), Blatnik has designed and fitted out a number of interiors alongside his studio work.
§ Awards
Selected recognitions for caricature[1]
§ 04 — Biography
Ivan Blatnik (b. 1985, Niš[1],[2]) is a Serbian painter, caricaturist and designer of the younger generation who entered the country's visual scene after graduating from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Niš — first in graphic design, then in interior design. The Serbian Wikipedia entry describes him as "creatively curious and personally unassuming, but decisively sensitive and inventive," with "impeccable drawing and design skills."[1]
His caricatures have travelled further than his person: they earned him the Yomiuri Shinbun prize in Japan, first prize at Belgrade's Mali Pjer competition, and — three times — a Special Award of the City of Belgrade.[1] Alongside the drawing practice he has designed a number of books, posters, business cards, brochures and catalogues, and completed a series of interior-design projects.[1]
He paints and exhibits alongside his father Aleksandar Blatnik (1944–), architect, caricaturist and painter, a "Distinguished Artist" of ULUPUDS with a Lifetime Achievement Award to his name.[6] Since the early 2010s the two have shown their canvases wall-to-wall in a recurring joint exhibition simply titled Blatnik & Blatnik, from Zaječar and Knjaževac to Pirot and Prague.[1],[2],[4]
Where the father paints heroes of everyday life pinned against the icons of the twentieth century — Toulouse-Lautrec, Modigliani, Picasso, Novak Đoković — the son opens what Wikipedia's editors call "the question of the duality of human nature," setting a chromatically expressive figure against a geometric, monochromatically resolved ground.[1] The ordinary man arrives on his canvases dressed as Tesla, as Nemanja Radulović, as Picasso.
§ 05 — Documentation
Photographs from press coverage of Ivan Blatnik's exhibitions and charity work. All images belong to their original publishers and are reproduced here with credit.
Auction handover · 2021
Ivan Blatnik hands over two paintings together with a Chaplin caricature by his father Aleksandar, at the third Local Foundation Niš online charity auction.[5]
Photo: Lokalna Fondacija Niš
Blatnik & Blatnik opening · 2015
Ivan (left) and his father Aleksandar (centre) at the opening of the joint exhibition Blatnik & Blatnik in Knjaževac's homeland museum.[1]
Photo: Wikipedia (sr) / Zavičajni muzej Knjaževac
Install view, Pirot · 2015
Visitors at the opening of the Blatnik & Blatnik exhibition of paintings and caricatures at Gallery Čedomir Krstić in Pirot.[2],[3]
Photo: Pirot Plus Online
The artist · 2015
Ivan Blatnik, portrait detail from the Knjaževac opening.[1]
Photo: Zavičajni muzej Knjaževac
§ 06 — Selected exhibitions
Local Foundation Niš — Charity Auction[5]
Niš, online
Two paintings by Ivan and one caricature by Aleksandar Blatnik sold for 35,000 RSD.
Aleksandar & Ivan Blatnik[4]
Gallery “Luka Lu”, Prague
Joint father-and-son exhibition at Veso Đorem's gallery.
Blatnik & Blatnik[1]
Zavičajni muzej Knjaževac
Joint exhibition, homeland museum, Knjaževac.
Paintings and Caricatures[2],[3]
Gallery “Čedomir Krstić”, Pirot
Father-and-son exhibition, opened 29 April 2015.
Blatnik & Blatnik[1]
Galerija Radul begov konak, Zaječar
Joint exhibition with Aleksandar Blatnik.
Niš — moving bus gallery
Performance-exhibition inside a Niš-ekspres city bus.
§ Sources
Wikipedia (sr)
Pirot Plus Online, 28 April 2015
Pirot Plus Online, 30 April 2015
JužnaSrbija.info via Vesti.rs, 11 December 2015
Lokalna Fondacija Niš, 24 January 2021
Wikipedia (sr)
Artist's Instagram, July 2026
§ 07 — Contact
Questions about a work, an exhibition or a visit to the studio — write a line and Ivan will reply personally.
Studio
Niš, Serbia
Membership
ULUPUDS (since 2012)
Lineage
Son of Aleksandar Blatnik (1944–)
Practice
Painting · Caricature · Graphic & Interior Design
Commission →
