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

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

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

Nassau County Museum of Art, Long Island, New York, Other Worlds Than This: 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

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