On 25 November 2021, the Željko Opačak Bequest exhibition called 'Revolt and Freedom' opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Srpska (MSURS).

The MSURS organised the exhibition with the aim of presenting to the public the exceptional Opačak gift, which enriched its collection in the year when it celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.

The Željko Opačak bequest, which contains 1,533 works made in the 1980s, consists of 106 paintings (oil on canvas; acrylic on canvas, textile and hardboard), 1,302 drawings (mixed media on paper), 45 collages, 4 pastels and 76 prints, which the artist donated in his desire to see them kept permanently as a single collection in the city where he was born and spent his youth and the first decades working as an artist.

By presenting Željko Opačak's gift, the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Srpska wished to thank the artist publicly for his unprecedent act of generosity, with works that complement its collection in a most unique way.

The donated works were a part of the artist's private collection, and this is the first time most of them have been shown to the public. The exhibits were selected by senior curator Žana Vukičević, who chose to present the many distinct stages of the artist's development, his changing media preferences and thematic preoccupations. The selected works provide an insight into a collection that illustrates the vividness and dynamism of the Banja Luka art scene, as aware of its qualities, which emerged in the last decade of Yugoslav art, which saw the final moments of a unity of culture and art.

Željko Opačak was born in Banja Luka in 1962. In 1986, he graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts (FLU) in Belgrade, where he also earned his postgraduate degree in 1988. The same year, he joined the Association of Artists of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ULUBiH), and in 1989 the Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies (ZDSLU) and the Association of Fine Artists Celje (DLUC). He took a study trip to Paris in 1991 (Cité Internationale des Arts). Between 2005 and 2012, he was president of the Association of Fine Artists Celje. He has received multiple awards and certificates of appreciation in recognition of his work (ZDSLU Media Certificate, May Salon, 2011; Dušan Simić Painting Award, DLUBL Salon, Banja Luka Cultural Centre, 1989; 1982 and 1983 FLU top-of-the-class student prizes). Opačak, who has lived in Slovenia for the last thirty years, is a prolific artist as well as an educator, who teaches art, art history and fine art theory at the Celje Gymnasium.