Petar Meseldzija

Petar Meseldžija was born in Novi Sad, Serbia, in 1965.

He began his career in 1981 with the comic strip “Krampi” in Stripoteka, one of the best-known comic magazines in his country. He then produced a series of short comics and worked on “Tarzan”. He graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, in the painting department. While still at the Academy, he illustrated his first book, Peter Enkorak (Jack One-Step), written by Terry Jones and published by Mladinska knjiga in Slovenia.

In 1991, Petar moved to the Netherlands. Shortly after, he abandoned comics to devote himself to illustration and painting. In the 1990s, he painted posters and greeting cards for companies such as Verkerke Reprodukties and Meiklejohn Graphics, and illustrated the book King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table for Grimm Press, a Taiwanese publisher. In the United States, Petar created eleven covers for a children's fantasy series at Scholastic Inc. He also collaborated on the books Serbian Folk Tales (Srpske narodne bajke) for Čarobna Knjiga, and Banished Creatures – The Serbian Mythology (Prognana bića – Srpska mitologija) for Orfelin izdavaštvo, both published in Serbia.

His solo works include The Legend of Steel Bashaw, a volume of his “Tarzan” comic strips, and two other collections of comics, Esmeralda and other Stories (Esmeralda i druge priče) and Kanoo (Kanu); The Art of Petar Meseldžija; The Book of Giants and Prince Marko and the Dragon (“Marko Kraljević i zmaj”).

Petar's many awards include the Art Show Jury Prize at the 59th World Science Fiction Convention in 2001, Silver Prizes in 1997, 2003 and 2018, and Gold Prize in 2009, awarded by Spectrum – The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, as well as the Golden Pen of Belgrade in 2017.

Petar presented his first solo exhibition of paintings in 1998 at the Tjalf Sparnaay gallery in Amsterdam. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions in the Netherlands, the United States and Serbia.

His original works are in private collections in Serbia, USA, Netherlands, UK, Belgium, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Sweden, Australia and Hong Kong.