ABOUT
Ekarasa Doblanovic is an Italian/Croatian-born artist based in Aotearoa New Zealand. She holds a Master of Visual Arts with Honours from Auckland University of Technology (2014). Her practice spans painting, installation and participatory art, with colour and materiality at its centre.
Painting is the foundation of her visual inquiry. Working with self-fabricated paints made from pure pigments and earth materials, Doblanovic explores colour as a physical, sensory and perceptual experience rather than a means of representation. Her paintings investigate how colour shifts through light, surface, scale and spatial relationships, often using geometric or modular structures that create a tension between order, movement and perception. Her process moves between carefully established systems and the unpredictable behaviour of materials, allowing chance and intuition to influence what emerges.
Alongside her studio practice, Doblanovic has developed an extensive body of participatory and site-responsive work using soil, clay and earth pigments. Since 2010, she has worked with more than 20,000 people through ecological art projects in community programmes and educational initiatives across Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally. Her projects have been presented in schools, museums and cultural institutions, including MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome and Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Italy. She was a finalist in the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice.
Her engagement with earth materials extends across artistic, educational and research contexts. In Aotearoa, she has collaborated with the University of Auckland's SoilSafe Aotearoa initiative, contributing to its interdisciplinary research exploring children's understandings and relationships with soil through scientific, cultural and creative approaches.
Doblanovic is also an ambassador for Michelangelo Pistoletto's Third Paradise Project, contributing to international conversations around art, sustainability and social responsibility. Across her studio and participatory practices, she explores how colour and matter can shape perception and create connections between people, place and the more-than-human environment.
Biography
Solo exhibitions:
2016 Modulated, Black Asterisk Gallery, Auckland, NZ
2015 Chroma, Black Asterisk Gallery, Auckland, NZ
2014 Chroma, St Paul St Gallery Three. AUT Auckland, NZ
2012 Big Blue, solo painting exhibition, Wallace Morrinsville Gallery , Morrinsville NZ
2007 Cycles Small Dog Gallery, Devonport Auckland, NZ
1999 Utisci, Photo Art Gallery "Batana", Rovinj, Croatia
1996 Gallery "Ronz" Roc, Croatia
Group exhibitions:
2023 "Small but perfectly formed" group exhibition, Queenstown , NZ
2021 Molly Morphet Canaday Art Award finalist, Whakatane, NZ
2019 Walker & Hall Art Award finalist, Waiheke, NZ
2019 13th Arte Laguna Prize finalist, Venice, Italy
2019 Auckland Art Fair , Black Asterisk Gallery, Auckalnd , NZ
2019 "Out of the box" , Black Asterisk Gallery, Auckland , NZ
2016 25th Annual Wallace Art Awards Finalist in the Travelling Show
2015 Molly Morphet Canaday Art Award, Whakatane, NZ
2014 AUT Grad Show, St Paul st Gallery, Auckland, NZ
2013 Trasforming Topographies Auckland Triennial, Auckland Art Gallery ,NZ
2014 Glaistor Ennor MA Graduate Award Exhibition, Sanderson Gallery, Auckland, NZ
2008 Ethnicity, Upstairs Gallery, Titirangi, NZ
2003 Mundial Photofestival, Museum Rovinj, Croatia
2001 Mundial Photofestival, Museum Rovinj, Croatia
2000 Mundial Photofestival, Museum Rovinj, Croatia
1998 Gallery San Tommaso with Association "Block" Rovinj, Croatia
1998 Saloon of Photography, Osijek, Croatia
1996 International of Photography F.K. Maribor, Slovenija
1996 International of Photography, Pieve di Soligo (Treviso), Italy
Participatory/Community projects:
2023 Castello di Rivoli d'Arte Contemporanea, Education Department 4 days presentation of environmental childrens workshops, Rivoli, Italy
2023 The Secret Life of Te Henga in collaboration with Matuku Link Wetland Reserve with birdwood Primary School, funded by Creatives in Schools-Ministry of Education, Auckland, NZ
2023 Te Secret Life of Waitakere Ranges in collaboration with Arataki Ranges Regional Park Education and Green Bay Primary Schools, funded by Creatives in Schools- Ministry of Education, Auckland, NZ
2022 Under Our Feet, in collaboration with Soil Safe Aotearoa Auckland University and Green Bay Primary School over 100 children involved in eco tile murals, funded by Creatives in Schools- Ministry of Education, Auckland, NZ
2022 Waitakere soil colours exploration with Birdwood Primary School, Auckland, NZ
2021 Intergenerational collaborative eco tile mural with Birdwood Primary School, Henderson Massey Chines cultural group, St Dominic's Girls College, Rosridge Rest Home, Soil Safe Aoteroa Univerity of Auckland, Ranui Library and Te Manawa Community Hub. Auckland, NZ
2021 Afhgani Women Cultural Group eco tile mural, Mangere, Auckland,NZ
2021 Twoghether, collaborative paper making and poetry community project, Te Manawa Community Hub, Auckland,NZ
2021 New Beginnings, Community collaborative installation project, Stainer School Titirangi, Auckland, NZ
2021 Kids Guerenica collaborative project with Third Paradise Project, Nagasaki Japan and Green Bay Primary School, Auckland, NZ
2020 Intergenerational Painting Pen Pal Project, Green Bay Primary School and Pine Song Retirement Village, Auckland, NZ
2019 Intergenerational Eco Tile Mural Project Avondale and Whau Art Festival, Auckland, NZ
2019 Tocca la Terra by Imagine the Land partecipatory soil installation at MACRO ASILO Ambiente #2 Museum of Contemporary Art Rome, Italy
2018 Whanui, Auckland Arts Festival, an intergenerational project in conjunction with Lynfield College
and Age Concern, Auckland, NZ
2016 Oneone , Te Uru Contemprary art Gallery (Learning Centre) Auckland, NZ
2014 Rebirth Day Project, in collaboration with Third Paradise by Michelangelo Pistoletto
Woodford Folk Festival,Brisbane, AUS
2013 La Rosa Park daylighting project, Auckland, NZ
2013 What Lies Beneath, Lopdell House Gallery, Auckland NZ
2012 Nelson Rhythms, Evolve Festival, Nelson NZ
2011 Death and Diversity, Museum of City and Sea, Wellington NZ
2012 Global Elders Gathering ,Cairns, AUS
2011 Earth Rhythms/ Rebirth Day Project in collaboration with Third Paradise by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Wallace
Morrinsville Gallery, NZ
2011 Sky Above, Earth Below, Waitakaruru Sculpture Park, Hamilton NZ
2011 Kaipara Sculpture Park, Auckland NZ
2011 E-Scape, Waitakaruru Sculpture Park, Hamilton, NZ
2010 Papatuanuku, Pacifica Grandmothers Council, Auckland, NZ
2010 TINA Art Festival, Newcastle, AUS
2009 Weaving the Circle, The Fringe Festival, Wellington, NZ
Artist Residencies:
2021 Embedded Practices, UNIDEE University of Ideas , Fondazione Michelangelo Pistoletto , Biella, Italy
2015 Group Matters Module-Unidee-The University of Ideas, Cittadellarte, Fondazione Michelangelo Pistoletto,
Biella, Italy
2013 Lines in the Sand, Artist Residency, Imagine the land, Strandbroke Island,AU
Publications:
2019 13th edition Arte Laguna Prize finalists , Venice, Italy
2015 Bhoomi, The Living Soil, Published by Navdanya/Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology India
2012 Michelangelo Pistoletto. “Année 1, la paradis sur terre” Published by Musee de Louvre, France
Collections:
MOCA Cultural Assosiation of Contemporary Art, Venice, Italy
Sir James Wallace Collection, New Zealand
AUT , Auckland University of Technology, Auckland,NZ