Josip Zanki (*1969, Zadar) is visual artist and anthropologist based in Zagreb. He graduated from the Graphic Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1994 (class of Professor Miroslav Šutej) with a thesis entitled “Mysticism in the Artistic Practice of J. Beuys” and an experimental series of etchings New Machines, a remake of the research conducted by the Croatian renaissance scientist Faust Vrančić.
In 2016 he completed his Postgraduate Doctoral Study in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. He received his PhD with a thesis entitled “Anthropological Conceptualisation of the Space in Thangka Painting and Contemporary Art Practices“ (supervisors Suzana Marjanić, and Leonida Kovač) on 11th February 2016. Josip Zanki is working on the field of graphic media, film, video, installations, performances, spatial interventions, and cultural anthropology. He has realized numerous exhibitions and research projects in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He taught at the University of Zadar 2009 to 2017 and at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas 2016 and 2017. Since 2017 he has been teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.
He is head of Doctoral Study at Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb since year 2023. Since 2018 he has been vice president of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists, oldest and largest institution of its kind in Croatia and the entire region, established in 1868. He has been a member of the European Cultural Parliament since 2011, and member of European Alliance of Academies Advisory Board since 2024.