Zlatko Krstevski is one of the few Macedonian comic artists, a contributor to several international anthologies, and one of the driving forces behind the Prilep art scene. He also makes paintings, which he exhibites regularly throughout Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.
Vizant
Born in 1969 in Prilep, he graduated from the Skopje Fine Arts School, where he majored in painting. He works as a visual artist, comic artist, photographer, video artist and performance artist. He is a director of the Vizant Centre for Visual Art (also written as "Byzant") in his hometown Prilep, where he presents urban arts, organises international projects for visual arts and promotes cultural heritage. He is for instance the driving force behind the mail comic festival in Prilep and the editor of several comics-related publications of Vizant. Krstevski is also active as a curator on international visual art exhibitions. He is author and photographer of four books about the cultural heritage of Prilep.
Comics
Krstevski's comics are characterized by their poetic and illusive narratives and rich, experimental visuals. They have been published in Vizant Comix, of which he was also the editor, as well as several (inter)national anthologies. He has been present in Stripburger (1996) and its companion anthology Stripburek, the Canadian 'Sunburn Comics' (1999), the urban art anthologies 'Strip Art Vizura' (2003) and 'Beyond Borders' (2007) and volume 18 of the international Cestbon (CBK) anthology (2012). In the Netherlands, his work was featured in 'A Bad Childhood...' (1999), a small press collective album compiled by Rob Derks and René Leisink for De Stripper. Online they have appeared on interactive comics platforms and webzines like ModestyComics.com and Komikaze.hr.
Expositions
Since 1990, Krstevski's paintings have been shown at over 500 solo and group expositions throughout Macedonia (Prilep, Skopje, Bitola, Kumanovo, Veles), Serbia (Novi Sad, Nis, Doljevac) and Slovenia (Koper), but also in New York, Portugal, Canada, New Zealand and Germany. He has participated in several salons of visual arts, varying from painting, comic art, cartoon, mail art and performance arts.