Maja Ruznic
Maja Ruznic (b. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1983) fuses personal narrative, psychoanalysis, mythology, and esoteric thought into vivid paintings that hybridize figuration and abstraction. Painting variably with oils and gouache on immense and small scales alike, she extracts order from layers of diluted pigment. Ruznic’s practice is informed by her studies, from Slavic shamanism and alchemy to Jungian psychoanalysis and sacred geometry. Imbued with a discordant beauty, her compositions emerge without a premeditated outcome. Ruznic’s introspective, mystical approach places her into a lineage of visionary painters including Paul Klee and Hilma af Klint. Ruznic lives in Placitas, New Mexico.
Recent solo exhibitions include those held at Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2024); Karma (New York, 2024, Los Angeles, 2023); Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque (2022); Karma, New York (2022); and Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico (2021). Ruznic’s work is held in the collections of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Dallas Museum of Art; EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland; Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico; Jiménez–Colón Collection, Puerto Rico; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Rachofsky House, Dallas; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Her work was recently on view in the Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Ruznic will be included in the 12th International, Once Within a Time, at SITE SANTA FE, New Mexico, opening June 27, 2025.
Photo by Brad Trone
Born 1983, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Lives in Placitas, New Mexico
EDUCATION
2009
MFA, California College of the Arts, San Francisco
2005
BFA, University of California, Berkeley
Selected Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2024
Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, MUTTER
Karma, New York, The World Doesn’t End
2023
Karma, Los Angeles, Geometry of Exile
2022
Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, Migration of Spirits
Karma, New York, Consulting With Shadows
2021
Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico, In the Sliver of the Sun
2020
Hales Gallery, London, Name of the Voice
Conduit Gallery, Dallas, My Noiseless Entourage
2019
Galerie DYS, Brussels, Maja Ruznic and Anya Belyat-Ginuta
2018
Conduit Gallery, Dallas, Avet
2017
Duplex100m2, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Phantom Caravan
2016
CES Gallery, Los Angeles, The Wailing Sisters
Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, Soil as Witness
2015
Galerie DYS, Brussels, Yellow Throat Ribs
Candyland, Stockholm, Untitled
She Works Flexible, Houston, Maja Ruznic and Luz Maria Sanchez, The Boogeyman Is Here
Eastside International, Los Angeles, Maja Ruznic and Ranee Henderson, Lonely Hunters
2014
Conduit Gallery, Dallas, Like Little Miracles They Shimmered, Wet and Innocent
Galerie Born, Berlin, Maja Ruznic and Nina Kluth, Refuge
Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, Maja Ruznic and Joshua Hagler, Among the Missing
Bustamante Gill Gallery, Los Angeles, Maja Ruznic and Yevgeniya Mikhailik, Tender Remains
2012
Trailer Park Projects, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Messengers
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
SITE SANTA FE-12th International, Once Within a Time, curated by Cecilia Alemani
By Art Matters, Hangzhou, China, 360°: Why We Paint?
2024
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Infinite Regress: Mystical Abstraction from the Permanent Collection and Beyond
Karma, Thomaston, Maine, A Particular Kind of Heaven
Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica (with Aïshti Foundation), Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Day for Night: New American Realism, curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Flaminia Gennari Santori
James Cohan, New York, Mother Lode: Material and Memory
Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, OVERSERVED, curated by Raffi Kalenderian and Alberto Cuadros
Contemporary Fine Arts, Basel, Switzerland, DEAD CAN DANCE
Whitney Biennial, Even Better Than the Real Thing, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Cromwell Place, London, Deific Outlines – The Human Figure Throughout the Centuries and Regions
Harwood Art Museum of The University of New Mexico, Taos
2023
EMMA–Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland, Dialogues
The Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, Full and Pure: Body, Materiality, Gender
Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Canned Heat
2022
Galleria Anna Marra, Rome, Postcard from New York – Part III
2021
Museo di Palazzo Pretorio, Prato, Italy, Hi Woman!, curated by Francesco Bonami
Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, From Morning Til Night, We Should Never Rely on a Single Thing
2020
Matthew Brown, Los Angeles
James Fuentes, New York, Abstract with Figure
Harper’s Apartment, New York, Yarrow Pickers
Shrine, New York, Good Luck
2019
Gildar Gallery, Denver, A Little Tenderness
Baby Blue Gallery, Chicago, Euphoric Flex
LAST Projects, Los Angeles, TBA
2018
DORF, Austin, Figures
Conduit Gallery, Dallas, Per Diem
pt. 2, Gallery, Oakland, California, Calico Sunset
Roswell Museum and Art Center, New Mexico, PARALLAX
Fine Arts Center Galleries, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Proof of Existence: An Exhibit of Work by Contemporary Artists of Bosnian and Balkan Origin
2017
OCHI, Ketchum, Indiana, Does It Make a Sound?
BEERS, London, Tickle Torture
ACME, Los Angeles, By the River
Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, With Liberty and Justice for Some
2016
Maiden LA, Los Angeles, Elysian Passage
Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, Phantom Limb
Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, Werewolf
Arc Gallery, San Francisco, Between Worlds
2015
Galerie Ernst Hillger, Vienna, Angels With Dirty Faces
Torrance Art Museum, California, Sincerely Yours
Figure One, Champaign, Illinois Painting is Dead?!
2014
Carmen Wiedenhoeft Gallery, Denver, Boundary//Battle
G-art Galeri, Istanbul, “I” in their Own Words
MASS Gallery, Austin, Exquisite Corpse
2013
Galerie Vidal Saint Phalle, Paris
Arc Gallery, San Francisco, Four Squared Alumni Show
Alter Space, San Francisco, What The Mouth Sees
2012
Alter Space, San Francisco, What’s Left Behind
Michael Rosenthal Gallery, San Francisco, Active
2011
HANG Art Gallery, San Francisco, Figure 8
Southern Exposure Gallery, Cries of San Francisco
Micro-Climate Collective, San Francisco, Perfect Place/No Place: Re-Imagining Utopia
2010
Arc Gallery, San Francisco, Dollhouse
Gallery Heist, San Francisco, Til Death Do Us Part
Root Division, San Francisco, Borders
arttransponder, Berlin, The American Orifice
Alphonse Berber Gallery, Berkeley, California, Works That Disturb The Moonlight
2009
Rod Pulliam Gallery, Portland, Oregon, Summer Group Exhibition
California College of the Arts, San Francisco, MFA Thesis Exhibition
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
Dallas Museum of Art
EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland
Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico
He Art Museum, Foshan, China
Jiménez–Colón Collection, Puerto Rico
Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Portland Art Museum, Oregon
Rachofsky House, Dallas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
PUBLICATIONS
2024
Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing
Yale University Press/Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2024
Gouaches
Karma, New York, 2024
2023
memoryhouse
Tamarind Institute
2022
Consulting with Shadows
Karma, New York 2022
2021
In The Sliver of The Sun
Harwood Museum of Art, 2021
Peter Bradley, Thaddeus Mosley, Maja Ruznic, Tabboo!, Xiao Jiang
Karma, New York, 2021
