Zdravko Mićanović - Little Prince Lifetime Achievement Award

23rd September 2025, at 4 PM

Hotel Patria

Born in Lopare (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska), Zdravko Mićanović has graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts (Department of Painting) in Sarajevo in 1977. Mićanović has received his MA in 1998 and PhD in 2020 from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade.

In his first year upon graduation, Mićanović worked as a high-school art teacher in Živinice and Lopar. From 1978 to 1992, he worked at the printing house Grafičar in Tuzla – initially as a graphic designer, subsequently becoming the company’s publishing department art-editor. After moving to Belgrade, Mićanović was employed as a graphic designer and an art director at the marketing agency Saatchi&Saatchi, from 1992 to 1998. Upon leaving the company, came a 3-year freelance period, after which Mićanović decided to pursue an academic career. He held a position of poster design teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts (2001-2004) and at the Faculty of Applied Arts (where he taught classes from 2004 until his retirement in 2018). From 2001 to 2006, he taught classes on graphic communications as a part-time teacher at the Department of Graphic Communication at Belgrade’s Faculty of Fine Arts Kragujevac branch, also extending his services to the newly established FILUM Faculty of Fine Arts, at the University of Kragujevac. From 2009 to 2011, he taught classes on graphic design at the Banja Luka Academy of Fine Arts. From 2006 to 2012, he was a professor at the Academy of Arts Slobomir of the University of Bijeljina and Doboj, also teaching courses related to graphic design.

Areas of creative expertise:

Graphic Design

Mićanović has designed a large number of posters, branding identities, books and printed media. In 1991, he showcased his graphic design portfolio at the Gallery of Yugoslav Portraits in Tuzla, with over 400 recorded works created as commissions and independently. For 18 years, he was the in-house designer of the Belgrade-based company Velefarm. He collaborated with many cultural institutions and publishing houses, including: Tuzla Youth Center, Drugari Sarajevo, Belgrade National Museum, Institute for Textbooks in both Belgrade and Sarajevo, Bosanska riječ from Tuzla, SKZ and others. He has produced posters for many theaters, including: Tuzla National Theater, Tuzla Youth Center, Kruševac Theater, Belgrade National Theater, Atelje 212, Belgrade Drama Theater, TKT from Tuzla. From 2003 to 2016, he was commissioned to design the visual identity of the BiH Theater Summit in Brčko, as well as the International Archaeological Film Festival (2002 to 2009) at the Belgrade National Museum. He made public appearances with solo exhibitions of his posters in Tuzla (1991 and 2022), Kruševac (1999), Brčko (2006), Rijeka (2011), Novi Sad (2012), Inđija (2016) and Belgrade (1998-2016), as well as with an exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 2016 which rounded off his overall career in poster design. For his work in graphic design and poster design, Mićanović has received several awards: the best poster award at the ULUPUDS’ 1995 May Exhibition and the 1995 October Salon. He was also recognized with awards at the Festival of Market Communications in Sarajevo (1989), and the Theatre Festival in Brčko (2004).

Beside graphic design, Mićanović is actively pursuing interest in drawing, caricature, illustration and comics.

In a brief period upon graduation, the most prominent art-form in his opus was drawing – as evidenced by his solo exhibitions (Tuzla (1982, 1987, 1990), Ljubljana (1982), Krk (1983), Supetar on Brač (1987), Trstenik (2000) and later in Belgrade (2001, 2013)) and numerous domestic and international group exhibitions and awards at the Doboj Salon (1981) and the Sremski Karlovci Art Colony of Drawing and Watercolor in 2001.

Mićanović started publishing his cartoons as a high school student in magazines such as Jež (The Hedgehog), Mladost (Youth) and Pomet, a sub-magazine of Slobodna Dalmacija. For several years, he was a permanent contributor of the Tuzla newspaper Front slobode and several other Tuzla labor organization newspapers. He participated in several international and Yugoslav cartoon exhibitions. In 1996 and 1997, as a cartoonist, he was the associate of Vesti (The News), a Frankfurt-based daily newspaper in Serbian language. He has won several awards for cartoons - most notably the 1st prize for the portrait of Branislav Nušić at the 6th International Cartoon Exhibition Golden Smile in Belgrade, 2008.

Throughout his professional career, Mićanović has been consistently involved with illustration, primarily illustrating books intended for younger audiences. He is well known for his collaboration with children's magazines Mališa from Tuzla, Vesela sveska from Sarajevo, Zmaj from Belgrade and Bijela pčela from Rijeka. Mićanović usually exhibits his illustration opus independently, but sometimes along with his comics and posters: in Tuzla, at the Vezeni most Festival (2004), in Novi Sad at the Zmaj Children's Games (2004), in Rijeka (2005), in Belgrade (2007 and 2012), in Subotica at the International Festival of Children's Theatres (2009), in Crvenka at the Bulka Children's Festival (2009), in Sombor (2013) and in Lopare (2008) at Sveti Sava Primary School (on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his enrollment in the first grade). He has participated in a large number of collective exhibitions, the most notable of which are the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava and the Golden Feather in Belgrade. He has won two Yugoslav awards for illustration at the Jugodidact exhibitions (1986 and 1988).

Comics have been significantly present in Mićanović’s work, especially in recent years. In the early 1980s, Mićanović produced comics dealing with contemporary social and political topics (published at magazines Front slobode, Kreka, Tuzlanska banka, PTT Tuzla). He also took part in several comic book competitions winning awards and recognitions (Ljubljana, Sarajevo and Novi Sad). For the last 21 years, he has been publishing thematically diverse comics and illustrations in the children's magazine, Bijela pčela from Rijeka. In 2023, he celebrated 20 years of collaboration with Bijela pčela with exhibitions in Subotica, Belgrade and Lopare, followed by Trstenik and Bijeljina in 2024. As a finale to the milestone celebration, a promo event for the comic book (published in Bijela pčela magazine) The Truth about the White Beard was held at the Leskovac National Museum (2024) and, subsequently, at the Faculty of Applied Arts during the 20th Ćira Days event.

Mićanović’s illustrations, cartoons and comics have been published in several newspapers and magazines such as Front slobode, Ošišani jež, Mladost, Slobodna Dalmacija, Sport, NIN, Politikin zabavnik, Vesti iz Frankfurta, Zmaj.

Mićanović has been a participant of art camps and workshops (at Karan, Feketić, Sremski Karlovci, Foča, Subotica-Palić, etc.). He held numerous master classes and workshops. He took part in several conferences with theoretical works in the field of graphic design. He was a member of the jury and artistic councils at cultural and fine arts events in the country and abroad.

He developed a specific type of activity during his work at several faculties by organizing about 60 student poster exhibitions, most often in cooperation with social institutions in the field of culture. The most notable place in these activities is occupied by the cooperation with the International Festival of Children's Theaters in Subotica, which has been going on for 15 years.

Among the more than thirty awards and recognitions won, the most current is the Golden Badge of the Municipality of Lopare for contribution to the culture of that area.