Matija Čop is a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, painting and printmaking. Raised in Croatia during the turbulent 1990s, a period marked by war and social fragmentation, Čop developed an early sensitivity to the complexities of identity formation. His experience of coming out as a gay man in a post-communist society continues to inform his artistic inquiry into structures of belonging, transformation and visibility.
Before turning to art, Čop trained as a professional sprinter and studied philology, shaping his ongoing interest in systems of movement, language and adaptation. His practice examines the idea of “translation” - not only across languages but also through materials, forms and conceptual frameworks. At the core of his visual language is a system of modular units, assembled, reconfigured or dissolved through self-devised logics. These iterative processes produce works that reflect on the tensions between order and disorder, system and intuition, structure and flux.
Čop’s work is held in major institutional collections including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Neal Baer Collection in New York and the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb. He has exhibited internationally at the Textile Art Biennial in Kranj, the 48th Zagreb Salon and Eccentrico Musivo in Ravenna.
Alongside his practice, Čop teaches at the London College of Contemporary Arts and has held mentoring and guest lecturing roles at the Royal College of Art and Harvard University.
Čop lives and works in London.