Maya Kulenovic

Born in 1975, Maya Kulenovic is a Canadian artist born in Yugoslavia. She studied art around the world, such as at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, England, at the Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto and at the Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. She is also an alumna of the Goodenough College in London, England.

Since the 2000s, Maya has been exhibiting extensively in Europe, primarily in the Netherlands. There she quickly became known for the emotional force of her work, as well as her compelling and evolving technique. A book on her work, with an introduction by Edward Lucie-Smith, was published by d'Jonge Hond in 2008. She has had over twenty solo exhibitions and over forty group shows in Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, and Turkey. Her paintings are found in numerous collections around the world. Kulenovic's latest monograph, Fugue, including an essay by Mark Kingwell was published in Toronto, Canada in 2017.

Kulenovic’s paintings and sculptures explore borderline states of being and non-being, trance and wakefulness, stillness and action. The figures and places in her work serve as both protagonists and settings in her ‘still narratives,’ marked by traces of past events and filled with anticipation, creating a haunting presence.Her influences range from classical sculpture and painting to film, photography, and architecture, yet her work defies categorization. While it connects to realism and history, it is more accurately viewed as speculative fiction, distorted memories, dreams, or premonitions.
Kulenovic builds her paintings through multiple translucent layers, some defining the subject and others obscuring or partially destroying previous layers, leaving subtle traces. She reconstructs images over the remnants, employing solvents, rags, wire brushes, and sandpaper to create a dynamic, unpredictable surface. Her sculpting technique mirrors this approach, involving creation, destruction, and reconstruction. The original sculptures are hand-sculpted in clay or carved in plaster, then cast in a refined concrete that blends fine pigments and sand. The casting process emphasizes layering, textures, and colors, after which the sculptures are often eroded or broken, then reimagined and refined.

Kulenovic’s work is evocative rather than descriptive, inviting multiple interpretations that exist in constant flux. This ambiguity is not something to resolve but rather a state of open-ended possibility, as her paintings and sculptures resist closure.