Maja Ruznic (b. 1983 Bosnia & Hercegovina) is known for lyrical paintings which seamlessly coalesce figures with their environments. She draws on personal and collective memories to create paintings that deeply connect with human psyche. Ruznic left Bosnia & Hercegovina when the war started in 1992, living in refugee camps in Austria until migrating to California in 1995. Themes of trauma and healing are softened in her work during the painting process – scumbling, blurring and allowing shapes to bleed into one another – symbolically destabilizing borders. In Mother, Tower, Spider (2022) Ruznic continues to play with ambiguity. Lying on the threshold of form, which she compares to a thought or a feeling that precedes language, she continues her exploration into family and the mother archetype. Mother, Tower, Spider, 2022 is a love letter to Louise Bourgeois, as well as Maja’s own transition into motherhood. The work explores the figure, but also nods towards cubism and brutalism.