[PHOTOS] Talented Croatian Matchstick Sculptor Creating New Piece

Tomislav Horvat

Talented Croatian artist Tomislav Horvat, renowned for creating impressive life-like matchstick sculptures, is working on a new project.

Horvat, from Podturen near Čakovec in northern Croatia, has been interested in making matchstick sculptures since he was a high school student.

He has produced a number of mind-blowing sculptures already, including life-size sculptures of Al Pacino as Don Corleone in the ‘Godfather’ sitting in his iconic armchair, and Mozart on his piano.

Al Pacino watching Mozart

The Mozart on the piano sculpture was Horvat’s biggest to date, with 210,000 matches used for the sculpture which he started working on back in 2014.

210,000 matchsticks used

His ‘Godfather’ sculpture took 19 months to complete and used 117,000 matchsticks.

The Godfather

“I’ve always been interested in art, eminently Italian Renaissance. I decided to work with matchsticks as they are readily available,” Tomislav told Croatia Week, adding that he gets his matches from local shops.

Tomislav

He is currently working on another sculpture titled ‘Desperate person’, which Tomislav says he was inspired to do by his fellow citizens who have emigrated to countries far away in search of a better future.

Desperate person in progress

He will use 54,000 matchsticks for the sculpture by the time it is complete.

Tomislav’s work has been exhibited in Zagreb, Čakovec, and Prelog.

Tomislav’s work on exhibit

You can check out more of Tomislav’s work on his Facebook page here.