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 Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Dallas Art Museum; EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland; Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico; Jiménez–Colón Collection, Puerto Rico; 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.

Photo by Brad Trone

Born 1983, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Lives and works in Placitas, New Mexico

EDUCATION

2009

MFA, California College of the Arts

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 d’Ys, Brussels, Maja Ruznic and Anya Belyat-Ginuta

2018

Conduit Gallery, Dallas, Avet

2017

Duplex100m2, Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Phantom Caravan

2016

CES Gallery, Los Angeles, The Wailing Sisters
Jack Fischer Gallery, San Franscico, Soil as Witness

2015

Galerie d’YS, 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
Born Gallery, Berlin, Maja Ruznic and Nina Kluth, Refuge
Jack Fischer Gallery, San Franscico, Maja Ruznic and Joshua Hagler, Among the Missing
Bustamante Gill Gallery, Los Angeles, Maja Ruznic and Yevgeniya Mikhailik, Tender Remains

2012

Trailer Park Projects, Puerto Rico, Messengers

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Infinite Regress: Mystical Abstraction from the Permanent Collection and Beyond

70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, A Particular Kind of Heaven

Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica in collaboration 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 Museum of American Art, New York, Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing

Cromwell Place, London, Deific Outlines – The Human Figure Throughout the Centuries and Regions

Harwood Art Museum of The University of New Mexico, Taos

2023

Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland, Dialogues

The Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, Texas, Full and Pure: Body, Materiality, Gender

Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany, Canned Heat

2022-23

Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, Shadow Tracer: Works on Paper

2022

The Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon, Dark Light: Realism in the Age of Post-Truths, curated by Massimiliano Gioni

Nassau County Museum of Art, Long Island, The Supernatural in Art

Eduardo Secci Contemporary, Milan, Unmatter

The Valley, Taos, New Mexico, Leave A Light On

Galleria Anna Marra, Rome, Postcard from New York – Part III

2021-22

Museo di Palazzo Pretorio, Prato, HI WOMAN!

2021

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, Calico Sunset
Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, New Mexico, PARALLAX
Western Kentucky University, Kentucky, Proof of Existence: An Exhibit of Work by Contemporary Artists of Bosnian and Balkan Origin
OCHI GALLERY, Ketchum, Indiana, Does It Make a Sound

2017

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 Gallery, Los Angeles, Phantom Limb
Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, Werewolf
Arc Gallery, San Francisco, Between Worlds

2015

Galerie d’Ys, Paris, YIA Art Fair
Galerie Ernst Hillger, Vienna, Angels With Dirty Faces
Torrance Art Museum, California, Sincerely Yours
Figure One, Champaign, Painting is Dead?!

2014

Carmen Wiedenhoeft Gallery, Denver, Colorado Boundary//Battle
Galeri G-Art, Istanbul, “I” in their Own Words
MASS Gallery, Austin, Texas, Exquisite Corpse

2013

Galerie Vidal St. Phalle, Paris, 3 Person Show with Martin Assig and Eleanor Moreton
Arc Gallery, San Francisco, Four Squared Alumni Show
Alter Space, San Francisco, What The Mouth Sees

2012

Alter Space, San Franscico, What’s Left Behind
Michael Rosenthal Gallery, San Francisco, Active

2011

HANG Art Gallery, San Francisco, Figure 8
Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, Cries of San Francisco
Micro Climate Collective, San Francisco, Perfect Place/No Place: Re-Imagining Utopia

2010

Arc Gallery, San Francisco, Dollhouse
Heist Gallery, San Francisco, Til Death Do Us Part
Rootdivision, 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

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
Dallas Museum of Art
EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland
Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico
He Art Museum, Foshan, China
Jiménez–Colón Collection, Puerto Rico
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
Rachofsky House, Dallas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art