Ordan Petlevski was a prominent artist working in the media of painting, drawing, graphic arts and illustration.

In the early 1950s Petlevski came to study in Zagreb, where he remained for the rest of his life. From 1955 to 1960 he was an associate of the Master workshop of the famous Croatian Naïve art

Naïve art

Naïve art is a classification of art that is often characterized by a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique. While many naïve artists appear, from their works, to have little or no formal art training, this is often not true...

 artist, Krsto Hegedušić

Krsto Hegedušic

Krsto Hegedušić was a Croatian painter, illustrator and theater designer. His most famous paintings depict the harsh life of the Croatian peasantry in the manner of naive art...

. In the early phase of his career (1954–1957) he painted stylized human figures, which he later replaced with surrealism, and later still with his own version of the Informel art style with organic art forms. The titles of his works also refer to organic forms, such as Flowering, Reanimated Fossil, Growth of a Form, Fruits, Divisions, Embryo and Form of Plenty.

He exhibited at many solo shows in Zagreb, Belgrade, Skopje, Sarajevo and Paris, and participated at numerous international exhibitions. He exhibited at the Venice Biennale

Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...

 in 1964 with Oton Gliha

Oton Gliha

Oton Gliha was a Croatian painter of Slovenian descent. He was born on May 21, 1914 in Črnomelj, Slovenia, in a Slovenian family originating from Istra, . The families residence was dictated by his father's civil service. Until the age of ten, he lived in Slavonia, , and later moved to Zagreb...

, Edo Murtić

Edo Murtic

Edo Murtić was a painter from Croatia, best known for his lyrical abstraction and abstract expressionism style. He worked in a variety of media, including oil painting, gouache, graphic design, ceramics, mosaics, murals and theatrical set design...

, Zlatko Prica, Fran Šimunović, Vojin Bakić

Vojin Bakić

Vojin Bakić was a prominent Croatian sculptor of Serbian descent.-Work and Artistic Career:Bakić was an important figure, particularly in the 50’s and 60’s Croatian contemporary art scene, and collaborated with the group EXAT-51 and the Nove tendencije movement...

 and Dušan Džamonja

Dušan Džamonja

Dušan Džamonja was a contemporary Croatian sculptor of Macedonian origin.Džamonja's work shows a tendency towards technical and formative experiments, reducing form to the dynamic and intense shapes of symbolical meaning...

. Two retrospective exhibitions were held featuring his work: one at the Art Pavilion in Zagreb, (1973) and one at Gallery Klovićevi Dvori

Klovicevi dvori

Klovićevi dvori is an art gallery in Zagreb, Croatia named after the Croatian painter Juraj Julije Klović. It is located in the historic Gornji Grad neighborhood. Two smaller galleries are located within the building, the Galerija Gradec and Kula Lotrščak. The gallery was opened in 1984.- External...

 (Zagreb, 1999). He received numerous awards, including First Prize at the 1st International Youth Biennale (Paris, 1959), Swiss Award for Painting (Lausanne, 1961), First Prize for Painting at the 1st Yugoslavian Triennial of Fine Arts (Belgrade, 1961), First Prize at the 1st Contemporary Croatian Graphic Arts Biennale (Split, 1974), and the Vladimir Nazor Award

Vladimir Nazor award

The Vladimir Nazor Award is an annual award given by the Croatian Ministry of Culture to Croatian artists for highest achievements in various artistic fields. It was established in 1959 and is named after the notable writer Vladimir Nazor...

(1978).

Published works on Ordan Petlevski

• Zidić, Igor - Ordan Petlevski, (Art Gallery, Sarajevo, 1968).