Danijel Zezelj (b. 1966 Croatia) started publishing comics during his first year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and is now the author of more than twenty graphic novels and short comics collections including. Originally from Croatia, Danijel lived and worked in the U.K. and Italy before moving to the United States in 1995. Zezelj’s illustrations and comic stories are poetic and examine the darker side of life, reflecting his comfort in a Kafkaesque world. Zezelj’s art speaks in a language easily understood and appreciated by a younger generation. Since 1997.

Danijel Zezelj’s comics and illustrations have appeared in magazines and anthologies in Croatia, Slovenia, England, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, South Africa and the USA. His work has been published by DC Comics/Vertigo, Wild Storm, Marvel Comics, The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s Magazine, Grifo Edizioni, Edizioni Hazard, etc. Since 1997 in collaboration with musician/composer Jessica Lurie, he has created a series of multimedia performances merging visual art and live music. Performances were presented at festivals and in clubs, galleries, theaters, churches and squats throughout the Europe and USA. In 2001 in Zagreb, Croatia he has founded a publishing house and graphic workshop Petikat. He lives and works in Brooklyn.

Danijel Zezelj spent the month of April 2004 working and drawing in the carriage house apartment. He photographed in the galleries where he was especially interested in the changing mood and light of the museum’s spaces. Zezelj examined several books including a volume of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy with woodcut illustrations and commentary, The Little Passion with 38 woodcuts by Albrecht Durer c. 1500, and an edition of Japanese woodcut comic books ca. 1900 that are all housed in the Long Gallery. Zezelj also wandered around Boston collecting materials on video and in photographs for future reference.

Since he first came at the Gardner, Zezelj has worked on several projects and performances for the museum including creating the design of the Gardner After Hours “look” since the program’s conception in 2008. At the time of his residency, Zezelj produced The Hunger Artist, a multimedia performance in the Tapestry Room that was based on a short story by Franz Kafka and combined projected still and video images with live and recorded music, sound, and narration. A few months later he returned for Small Hands, a live painting and music performance that was held in the outside gardens of the Museum for Neighborhood Nights.

In June 2005 Danijel Zezelj was back again to install his exhibition Stray Dogs in the Special Exhibition Gallery. This exhibition included Zezelj’s original drawings in pen and ink for his graphic novel, Stray Dogs that was produced in conjunction with the exhibition, and copies of the printed publication. Chapter 7 (Princess) told the story of a museum that had gone into a self lock down during a war. The staff stayed to protect the collection and survived by growing food in the courtyard. The illustrations directly referenced the many photographs Zezelj had taken during his stay. Zezelj spoke about his work and invited poet Charles Simic to do a reading of his poetry in the gallery. At the close of the show, the museum launched a microsite to archive the exhibition and to showcase Zezelj’s work.

Zezelj also worked with sixteen 8th graders at Boston Latin School. His project focused on portraiture and included several visits to the Gardner Museum and hands-on time in Boston Latin School’s classroom. In the museum galleries the students used examples from the collection to discuss why portraits are made, the expectations of the patron, and how artists make decisions about how to portray and position the figure, use light, contrast, background details, etc to convey the attributes of their subject. The students brainstormed on who they would like to use as a subject and began to collect images, text and other materials for the project. Zezelj showed various examples of modern and contemporary works that use collage and assemblage and lead drawing activities that emphasized proportion and scale. On the final day, Danijel gave each student an individually wrapped copy of Stray Dogs.

In June 2010, Zezelj held a performance and mini-exhibition in the Special Exhibition Gallery. Once was a dynamic act of live narration that used sound and images as the language of expression. The performance was built on an interchange between painting and music. Zezelj transformed the canvas over and over again in front of the audience accompanied by rhythms performed by Jessica Lurie (saxophone and voice), Todd Sickafoose (base), and Marika Hughes (cello). The painting’s progress was documented by still photography and edited with the music into a video. The next day, the video was installed alongside the final rendering of the painting and remained there for three days. This was the last work to be shown in the Special Exhibition Gallery in the museum building.