Endi Poskovic

Endi Poskovic is an internationally recognized printmaker. His chosen form is the woodcut, although he has also worked with intaglio, lithography, relief, monotype, and hybrid techniques. Poskovic typically juxtaposes a strong central image with seemingly unrelated text in a foreign or imaginary language evoking a multileveled meaning.

According to the artist, his prints “imply stories from personal and social histories, referencing themes of memory, displacement, cultural and environmental shifts, migration, and alienation that are both magnificent and apocalyptic. The images and phrases suggest wisdom, absurdity, contradiction. The placement of real and invented words, the use of saturated hues and graphic imagery reminiscent of youthful whimsy and political disillusionment contribute to the situations which make these images hover between the real and the fictitious, the rational and the absurd.” [1]

Born in Sarajevo in 1969 to working class parents, Poskovic initially studied music and toured Europe and the Middle East with a group of folk musicians. During his travels he visited museums and shifted his focus to visual art. He received a BFA from the University of Sarajevo in 1990, then studied in Norway. In 1991 he moved to the United States to study at the State University of New York at Buffalo with Harvey Breverman and Adele Henderson. He earned his MFA there in 1993.

While in Buffalo and in the years following, Poskovic exhibited at several Western New York venues including the Burchfield Penney Art Center (1994-95), the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, and the Castellani Art Museum.

Poskovic’s work has been exhibited in more than 250 venues and can be found in public and private collections and museums around the world. He has earned dozens of grants and fellowships from such institutions as the Guggenheim Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the Camargo Foundation.

Poskovic has taught at Nordemore Folkehog Skole in Norway; SUNY Buffalo; Daemen College (Amherst, N.Y.); Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana); and California State University (Long Beach, California), among others. From 1997 to 2008 he was an associate professor of art at Whittier College in Los Angeles, and since 2008, he is a professor at Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan. He is also a frequent visiting artist and artist-in-residence at colleges and universities around the U.S.

For more information on Endi Poskovic, visit http://endiposkovic.com/home.html. 

[1] Endi Poskovic, “Artist’s Statement,” http://www.ipcny.org/node/949. (Accessed 12/10/2014)