Artist Biography

Stanka Kordic’s collectors would say her work affects them on many levels. Her paintings speak for themselves, never nostalgic replications of by-gone days, but truly contemporary examples of Modern Art rendered with the skill and passion of the Master’s traditions. They provide lasting pleasure, as one is always delighted to find a previously undiscovered passage with each new glance.

Stanka Kordic is a first generation American born of Croatian parents. She followed her talented brothers, Vladimir and Branko into the World of Art. Stanka graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1985. From there, she traveled Europe, taking in as much art as humanly possible - searching for her voice as a painter. She returned to work as an illustrator for several years. Her projects included editorial art, package design, and book illustration. In pursuit of artistic freedom, she left the commercial world in 1988 to establish a fine art studio, concentrating her efforts on painting the landscape and figure. This led to local recognition, awards, and inclusion in several corporate collections throughout the midwest, including Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and Key Corp.

Inspired by people, she turned to the field of commissioned portraiture in 1998 to become successful employing the philosophy of making the portrait a great painting by transcending likeness, hence the name Alternative Portraiture.

Her extensive client list spans the US, crossing the ocean to England and Croatia.

Stanka continues to work from life and her own source materials as she studies the figure in many different environments, integrating elements of abstraction with realism.

She currently serves as Artist in Residence at Beaumont School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.