Maja Ruznic
Self Portrait as The Emotional Trash Can, 2011, mixed media on paper, 10 x 10 in.
Too Much Make Up/Not Enough Sleep,2012, mixed media on paper, 8 x 7.5 in.
Lovers, 2012, mixed media on paper, 17.5 x 15 in.
Need A Third Eye, 2012, mixed media on paper, 14 x 15
The Exchange, 2012, mixed media on paper, 10 x 8 in.
Bad Luck, 2011, mixed media on paper, 7 x 5 in.
Triglav I, 2011,mixed media on paper, 7 x 5 in.
Now What?, 2012, mixed media on paper 14 x 15 in.
Mouthwash to Drift Away, 2012, mixed media on paper, 11.5 x 8 in.
Maja, the Mother of Buddha and Your Emotional Trash Can, 2011, mixed media on paper, 5 x 7
About the Artist
Maja Ruznic was born in Bosnia & Hercegovina, 1983 and now lives and works in San Francisco, CA. She has a BFA from the Univeristy of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA (2005) and an MFA from the California College of Arts, San Francisco, CA (2009)
Artist Statement
Over the past year or so, I have been drawing and painting people, objects and memories of experiences that evoke a sense of failure and trigger a sense of psychological unease that echoes my childhood refugee experience. In documenting these people, objects and events with highly editorialized and projected-upon personae, I am simultaneously preserving them and destroying who they actually are. My intention in painting these subjects is to meditate on who they are and infuse them with a second chance. I am interested in the repetitive nature of recording and the meditative and spiritual aspects of redemption. The paintings become a collection of failed objects and experiences. It is also an agglomeration of memory, imagination and misinformation I have collected over time. Through the glut of imagery and objects, I am interested in evoking the past, while fictionalizing it. The figures in my small works on paper are Anti-Heroes, characters I have created based on my interest in those who live along the interstices of society—homeless, drug addicts, prostitutes, derelicts and vagabonds—individuals whose psychological state reminds me of my immigrant experience.
Maja Ruznic at Michael Rosenthal Gallery
posted by Carmelita Caruana
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