Those Seen in Blood, Rubies, Human Lips and Fox’s Hair (2010) Oil on canvas, Size: 90 x 120 cm
Maja Maljević is a Serbian born artist who lives and works in Johannesburg. She creates a melodic cacophony of joyfully surreal and mostly abstract colour-scapes in which humor usually plays an important role. The shapes and objects are often enmeshed in a matrix of colours, textures, occasionally figures and often cryptic words. She works intuitively, splashing paint freely and expressively. For Maljević, describing her work is like putting music into words.
She says “I try to concentrate on the process of building and layering imagery, which is a central concern of mine when painting.” She enjoys the mistakes, mess and unintentional marks and believes that if you don’t create the layers, you don’t get the end result. The marks, whether intentional or accidental, are integral to this process.
Maljević first participated in a monotype workshop at David Krut Print Workshop in 2007 and since then has created several bodies of work with the DKW printers. In 2009 she had a solo exhibition at David Krut Projects in Johannesburg, called Into the Spine, and she has worked at the Arts on Main workshop for the duration of the 2010 Monotype Project. Maljević had her second solo exhibition at David Krut Projects in February 2011. The exhibition, titled Bubble and Leak, consisted of a series of large oil paintings and selected monotype prints. Maljević recently did a two week painting residency at the Nirox foundation and will be exhibiting in a solo show at David Krut Projects Cape Town in 2012.
Maja Maljević was recently in residence at NIROX Foundation from 2 September to 17 September with German artist Tatjana Doll. Towards the end of her stay, she also met another renound German artist Jürgen Partenheimer, who is currently in residence at NIROX. For Maljević, the opportunity to spend time with two dynamic and sophisticated painters made a huge impression. She was able to immerse herself in the solitude and idyllic surroundings of the Cradle of Humankind, frequented only by mischievous monkeys that ventured into her personal studio while she worked.
During her two week sojourn at the Foundation Maja worked intensively on 24 small-scale paintings the size of which is comparable to an A4 page. The series of paintings is titled Nirox Diaries. The paintings are special and rather quirky in the way that each one is marked with the exact time and date it was completed. Many of the oil paintings were worked on simultaneously to allow the thicker paint to dry in between layers.
The small scale of the paintings becomes reminiscent of a journal which is reflected in Maljević’s way of working. Her use of cryptic titles and coded alphabet that explode across sections of her work further alludes to the idea of a secret journal. Her paintings are reflections of the abstract ideas and feelings that flood her subconscious using colour and form to write her thoughts across the surface. The 24 paintings seem to allude to the hours in a day; a reminder of passing time that is weighed upon in a diary that plans a day or documents personal thoughts over a period of one’s life.
For some people; like my girlfriend Kae, the idea of art or even going to an art exhibition, is a romantic concept. So seeing as Valentines Day was looming, I thought it would be ingenious if we made our way to the David Krut Projects space on Jan Smuts Avenue on what was turning out to be a typical lazy Saturday afternoon. We had a look at Bubble and Leak; the latest showing by Maja Maljevic.
I was expecting to score a few brownie points with my art critic's persona (one arm behind my back and the other hand on my chin; rubbing contemplatively as I "examined the art"). I was hoping to be staring at a few "pretty pictures" that weren't too conceptually demanding - That would have done very nicely. Instead as soon as we had arrived we were confronted by large scale panels of seemingly playful, yet vaguely uneasy oil paintings- which had a grunge inspired edge to them. All with a distinctive use of colour, where abstracted and/or figurative forms, and sometimes scribbles of illegible text revealed themselves.
Just when it seemed as if Kae and I were getting used to the large gestured, whimsical yet slightly melancholy paintings, we noticed that amidst the larger paintings were smaller monotype prints; where the artist?s emotions were much more focused.
Nothing is as it appears with this artists work; the subtext and meaning is as layered as her canvases. I'm willing to bet that underneath all those bright colours are layers of angstful meaning. But hey, that's just my gut feeling. Check it out the show for yourself.
If you find yourself in the Parkwood area between now and the 19th of March; give this show a peek, it's filled with raw emotion and might just surprise you; just like Kae did on our way home when she said "Cool art works 'ey?"
