On View Magazine 07-09.2015 | Page 93

30TH ANNUAL Tallahassee International Maja Ruznic “This new body of work offers glimpses into uncanny yet familiar landscapes and evokes feelings of discomfort and displacement. The figures, whose gender is ambiguous, are alive and dead at once—they are ‘avet’—the Bosnian word for an apparition. I seek to bring out the fragility from within the subject, not to presume superiority, but to celebrate the intimacy possible when we bare our traumas, both large and small. I allow my paintings to tell me how to make them—the paint bleeds and washes over the figure, gently unmasking psychological deformations. The paintings are sketch-like and complete at once and evoke the feeling of having woken from a dream, recalling a few, small details while the rest recedes into obscurity. ” —M. Ruznic Maja Ruznic, Trophies Were Made and the Message Did Not Matter. The Joy Was Already In Their Bones., ink and gouache on paper, 31 x 42 inches. OnV i e w Ma g a z i n e . c om • J u ly /S e p t e m b e r 2015 93