Nikola Listeš was born in 1960 in Split, Croatia. Already during secondary school, he drew cartoons of his teachers. In the late 1970s, he took his first professional steps with publications in (obscure) local newspapers.
Since then, Listeš has been active as a cartoonist, illustrator, and comic artist. His first cartoon series appeared in the sports magazine SN-revija. Later, his work was published in various international newspapers and magazines, including Playboy, West Australian, Heideheimer Neue Presse, and Die Brücke. To this day, his cartoons are distributed through the leading American cartoon syndicate, Cagle Cartoons.
Although this is by no means an exhaustive list, the work of, among others, Sempé, Quino, Searle, Kambiz, Ross Thompson, Jurij Kosobukin, Rumen Dragostinov, Pol Leurs, and Angel Boligan made a great impression on Nikola Listeš.
In 2001, he received his first international award in Seoul. Since then, his track record has grown to more than 100 distinctions at international cartoon competitions. His work was also honored with an honorable mention at our Euro-cartoonale De Muur.
In this exhibition, we present almost exclusively these award-winning cartoons—each and every one characterized by a strong interplay between idea and image.
During the drawing process, Listeš devotes most of the time to developing a strong concept, after which the drawing takes shape, is further refined, and carefully colored. In doing so, he often combines traditional techniques with digital post-processing.
Each of these cartoons tells its own story, inviting the viewer to engage actively and to give it a personal interpretation.
