Valentina Šuljić is young Croatian artist, whose work has been already from the beginning of her artistic path engaged in different fields of artistic expressions. She is painting and at the same time she is making urban installations - which include sculptures - design and photography, but her basic field of creation stays graphic art which she had been studying and perfecting all the time. The basic point of departure in graphic art creation of Valentina Šuljić is line, the most simple and at the same time the most dynamic visual element in which creator with rich imagination and sensibility could discover the unlimited possibility of visual expression. Even before the end of her study Šuljić has been connecting her exploring lines with the thread and from then on - she dedicated to this theme her magisterial work with the title Graphicweaving - she puts all this kNITtings into the context of different innovative and upgraded graphic-art techniques (monotypes, vernis mou, réservage) and this is her constant source of inspiration.

In her recent works - made in 2007 - also, which is bound into the cycle with explicit title The Threads, the author is following her exploring of thread knitting. Cycle consists of different, unusual graphic-art works made in the technique of monotype on glass, which - multiplied and sorted in parallel layers - represent at the same time the space-objects. Key pattern of these works are different combinations of threads-lines, printed pieces of cloth-textures and interventions with colored rollers knitted through the translucence glass base. Between the single elements inside these combinations a multi-layer dialogue is passing (for instance on the level of translucence-opaque, moving-still, arbitrary-structural) which is additionally complicating by simple, but thoughtfully chosen color-palette and every time different background. Final image is con-structured with the light, playing on the glass surface of the object and by going deep through its net-structures, is making series of unusual visual effects, whose dynamic balance between the two and three dimensionality create a feeling of movement, fluidity and shivering.

Ms. Šuljić is by connecting her graphic art works with space and light far over-passing the borders of traditional graphic art opening to herself completely new and undiscovered fields of visual expression. Entering these fields, author has opened a possibility of new discoveries and different approaches. To the public confronted to her work in a gallery space, the possibility of new optic and tactile experiences is opened and with that also different perceptions of reality.

Galerija Schwarz
Koprska 106/d
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia

The Gallery is open at 8.00 - 16.00, from Monday to Friday.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Valentina Šuljić was born 21 February 1976 in Zagreb, Croatia. After completing her secondary education at the School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb in 1995, she went on to study at the Department of Graphic Arts at the Art Academy in Zagreb. During her studies she went to Brno (FAVU) in the Czech Republic as an exchange student. In 2000 she worked as a demonstrator at the ALU Graphic Workshop under Prof. Nevenka Arbanas. She graduated in 2001 in the class of Prof. Frane Para. In the same year, she organized and led the "Mala likovna radionica na otvorenom" (Small Art Workshop in the Open) workshop in Sutivan on the island of Brač. In 2002 she enrolled at the Teaching Academy in Zagreb to study pedagogy. She has worked as an art teacher in primary education. In 2002 she became a member of the Croatian Society of Artists (HDLU - Hrvatsko društvo likovnih umjetnika) and a member of the Association of Artists of Zaprešić (ULS - Udruga likovnih stvaralaca Zaprešića) in 2004. In 2003, in her desire for further education and knowledge she enrolled for post-graduate studies at the Department of Graphics (intaglio print) of the Arts Academy in Sarajevo under the tutorship of Prof. Dževad Hoza. She achieved her master’s degree in graphics there in 2007. She has been a member of the Croatian Community of Independent Artists (HZSU - Hrvatska zajednica samostalnih umjetnika) since 2005. She worked as an associate teacher at the Department of Graphics of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb from 2005 until 2007 and is a doctoral art studies candidate. She has presented her artwork at independent and group exhibitions, as well as at many festivals.

INDEPENDENT EXHIBITIONS:

• Silence more than silence, cycle of oils, National University Gallery, Sesvete, Croatia, 1997.
• Printing produce, cycle of monotype on paper, Lapidarium nightclub, Zagreb, Croatia, 1998.
• Monotype, cycle of monotype on paper, gallery of the Fakulty výtvarných umení VUT V Brne, Brno, Czech Republic, 1999.
• Summer on the sea, cycle of oils, Vladimir Nazor Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia, 1999.
• Summer on the sea, cycle of oils, island of Brač, Sutivan town, Croatia, 1999.
  
• Circulus, cycle of monotype on paper, CEKAO gallery, Zagreb, Croatia, 2002.
  
• Threads and application, cycle of monotype on paper, "Idealni grad" gallery, Gajnice, Zagreb, Croatia, 2002.
• Wind in threads, cycle of monotype on glass, Matica hrvatska gallery, Zagreb, Croatia, 2003.
• Movement, cycle of monotype on glass and paper, Krapina town gallery, Krapina, Croatia, 2004.
• Graphicweaving, cycle of intaglio prints, Bužančić gallery, Novi Zagreb, Croatia, 2006.
• Graphicweaving, cycle of intaglio prints, gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2007.
• Threads, monotype on glass, combined techniques and luminous objects, Razvid gallery, Zaprešić, Croatia, 2007.
• Threads, monotype on glass, Schwarz gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia, February 2008.

Formatted for CROWN by   Marko Puljić
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