Greg Stimac

Grga Štimac
Grga Štimac
Born	1976 (age 49–50); Euclid, Ohio, U.S.
Education	Stanford University, Columbia College Chicago
Known for	Photography, video, sculpture

Grga Štimac, formally Greg Stimac (born 1976) is an American artist who lives and works in New Mexico. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography^[1] and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.^[2]

Education and background

Grga Štimac was born a first-generation Croatian-American in Euclid, Ohio. His interest in photography matured in Linda, California, while attending Yuba Community College (1997–2002) where he practiced traditional darkroom processes.

In 2002, his work was included in the Crocker-Kingsley: California's Biennial at the Crocker Art Museum, (Sacramento, California) juried by artist Gladys Nilsson.

He relocated to Chicago to finish his undergraduate education at Columbia College Chicago (2003–2005) and found employment at both the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the Croatian Ethnic Institute.^[3]^[4]^[5] From 2011 to 2013 Štimac attended graduate school at Stanford University.

Artistic practice

Štimac first gained attention for his serial photographic series titled "Recoil" (2005), a project made in collaboration with gun enthusiasts at unregulated shooting ranges in California and Missouri. Other subjects from this period include; lawn mowing, unattended campfires, urine-filled bottles at the roadside, and cars peeling out.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]

In 2009 Štimac collected ephemera on plexiglass plates attached to the grill of his car between destinations, then scanned them at road-side with a flatbed scanner. This work became a series loosely referred as "Driving Photographs" and served as a departure from his traditional photographic practice. Each individual image is titled with the point and destination.^[11]^[12]

In recent work, Štimac continues to investigate myth and reality of American identity through its landscape, cultural traditions, folk heroes, and histories, with subject matter including the Golden Spike, Old Faithful, the Flag of the United States,^[13] and America's Independence Day (the 4th of July).