Dragana Crnjak: Perceptual Shifts


Down the hill by the stomp pass the water pump make right…;
Charcoal, acrylic on wall, dimensions variable, 2011


Detail



Slow Reveal; Charcoal, acrylic on wall, dimensions variable, 2008




Detail




I am interested in the perception itself, and the processes of sensing in relation to those of understanding.  The process of painting for me always exists between discovery and contemplation, memory and invention. While focusing strongly on the visual presence of the work and the physicality of the mark, I am simultaneously interested in the impalpable.  The surface confronts a viewer physically first while the image gradually opens up spatial depths and triggers new perceptual shifts and dimensions.  The mystery of these interspaces keeps providing inspiration, new visual thinking and potentials. 




House 12; Charcoal, acrylic on wall, dimensions variable, 2013



The Day it Rained Silver, Charcoal, acrylic on wall, dimensions variable, 2011



Process – in progress




I Thought I Might Find You Here; Charcoal, acrylic on wall, 2009




Untitled; Charcoal, acrylic on wall, dimensions variable, 2010



Unusual Morning; Charcoal, acrylic on wall, dimensions variable, 2007




Good Timing; Charcoal, acrylic on wall, dimensions variable, 2013




Detail




Field; Charcoal, acrylic on wall, dimensions variable, 2009




House; Charcoal on wall, dimensions variable, 2007




Detail



Bio
Born in 1977 in former Yugoslavia, Dragana Crnjak received her M.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She is an interdisciplinary artist whose work toys with viewers’ perceptions in wall drawings that somehow manage to create impossible illusions even as they seem only fleetingly present. She is a recipient of Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards in visual art for 2008, 2011, 2015, Research Professorship from Youngstown State University, and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship in drawing.  Her work has been exhibited at Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, MI; Gallery at Porter, Art Institute of Boston; Kathryn Markel Gallery, New York City; SPACES gallery in Cleveland; and more.  Her work is represented by Page Bond Gallery in Richmond, VA and Simon Gallery in Morristown, NJ. 

She had taught art at University of Virginia and The Cleveland Institute of Art. She is currently Associate Professor at Youngstown State University, Ohio, teaching painting and drawing.


Comments