A painter by vocation, his opus encompasses an eclectic range of artistic media, notably installation and text, and is noted for exploring a vast array of themes focused on the "dialectic between the individual and society.
"[2] Making his debut in 2014 alongside Andrea Civadelić, Mia Madir, Jelena Perišić, lvana Kevo and Bruna Carev with a collaborative effort at the international graphic design expo Szymborska in Olsztyn, Poland, his first solo exhibition came a year later with the first piece of the Progress cycle at the City Museum in Split.
[4] According to Dora Derado, Šurlin's 2016 secession-based project Premijera 48 (Premier 48), conceptually capturing "the modern man in his constant attempt to keep up with the urban world (...) inadvertently dissipating himself", harkens back to the poetics of Joseph Beuys and Eva Hesse.
[9] Šurlin returned to exhibit at the city's Youth Centre in 2023 with Taking Measures, a multimedia project co-created with Zagreb-based artist Miran Blažek, focused on space as a concept not solely defined by physical categories.
[11] Akin to Giles Blatta, the complex panopticon of seven works created between 2018 and 2021 Post Residuum addresses escapism from the materialistic paradigms that followed urbanisation, and was acclaimed for its "inventive and subtle social commentary on the lability of today's life.