Vilko Žiljak

Vilko Žiljak was born in Croatia where he currently lives. He studied experimental physics at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics at the University of Zagreb, graduating in 1973, and earned his doctorate in computer sciences at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in 1981. Žiljak worked in industry throughout the 1970s, applying simulation and mathematical modeling to major projects at Industroprojekt, Selk, and an oil pipline before joining the University of Zagreb. From 1982 he was professor at the Faculty of Graphic Arts, where he founded the interdisciplinary study of graphic technology and served as dean from 1983 to 1987. His career spans research, pedagogy, and innovation across mathematics, computer science, printing technology, and information sciences, and includes several publications in these areas.

Žiljak began creating computer graphics in 1970, programming on an IBM 1130 where each printout required eight hours of computation and was rendered in ASCII on line printers. He first exhibited these works at tendencies 5 in Zagreb in 1973, presenting 14 prints in the Computers and Visual Research section. His early series, including RN Transition and Breakthrough of Circle, translated stochastic mathematical models into abstract visual forms, a practice he described as “publishing new mathematical structures as images.” As a trained musician, he often likened programming to composing, developing stochastic sequences as visual counterpoint. In later works he advanced from ASCII to vector and color graphics, applying offset printing and silkscreen to both works on paper and textiles. His practice explored the visual language of mathematics and physics as aesthetic expression, treating computers not as neutral instruments but as partners in invention. In the 1990s he founded the Sveti Ivan Zelina Gallery, where he developed InfraredArt and Infraredesign, embedding dual images visible separately to the human eye and in the near-infrared spectrum, expanding his lifelong search for new dimensions of visual research. Beyond the gallery, he played a central role in protective printing, co-designing Croatian passports, identity papers, and the kuna banknotes with Miroslav Šutej in the 1990s. His innovations in infrared printing led to the patented technique Infraredesign, which continues to find broad application in security and design.

His work has been exhibited internationally since the 1970s, with early appearances at Sigma 9 in Bordeaux in 1973, ICCH/2 in Los Angeles in 1975, and Computers in Visual Art in Brussels in 1981. Later selections include Ex Machina – Frühe Computergrafik bis 1979 at Kunsthalle Bremen in 2007 and bit international at ZKM in 2008–09. He has presented more than thirty solo exhibitions, among them a major retrospective, 50 Years of Computer Graphics, at the Technical Museum Nikola Tesla in Zagreb in 2023. His early computer graphics are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. He has received international recognition for his achievements, including the Golden Kuna Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, the Croatian State Prize for Science in 2010, and the Presidential Print Award from the Indian Federation of Printing in 2021.