Endeavor somehow carries within itself both “to emerge” and “to stand still”—don’t ask me how or why. At times, we all must endeavor, emerge, stand still, and… avoid being banal. That is no easy task. The intensity with which life tries to force us into standing still is, in fact, one of the forms of emergence. To emerge as a parent is surely in the category of the most challenging emergences, and even more so of the most challenging standings. And remainings. It’s no wonder that parenthood is so often idealized and glorified, whether it stems from genuine emotion or a constructed image; this happens because parenthood is, in essence, both incredibly hard and incredibly easy.
Lena Kramarić’s latest series of paintings reveals just that: everything is both easy and difficult at the same time. To the viewer, it likely appears that her paintings emerge effortlessly. But knowing her creative process and life circumstances, the answer likely points in another direction. Using her almost signature expressive tools and figures from her well-known artistic “repertoire,” she tells us that matrescence (the process of becoming/being a mother) is not only lengthy but ongoing—a process that defines her to the very limits of spirit and body. The body wants to, but it cannot (there’s no time, no space, no strength), while the spirit wants to, can, and knows how, yet it remains “anchored” by the body’s impossibilities.
One of her series (“Practice”) demonstrates how this exercise is a daily one. A real training session, a preparation for performance. But a performance where, perhaps in front of an audience (whether small or large), you may not be at your best. But you will be there.
Female figures painted in bold colors, collaged, drawn, sometimes repainted. There are also attempts at reduction—perhaps due to the limited possibilities of creation? The formats are small, though there are a few larger ones (we’ve almost grown accustomed to them!). And it is precisely these larger ones that are repainted. This repainting of older works seems significant. For a new life born out of parenthood, something must be lost. The gain is guaranteed, but so is the fear of that gain. The older works that have thus become the “carriers” of the newer ones are not merely an expression of the inability to start completely anew (and why should we?), but proof that emergence is always an act of building upon.
For everyday life, time and space sometimes need to be pinched, and sometimes ripped out. But for a creative artistic life, every endeavor is essentially an extraction from oneself—from one’s fears, exhaustion, worries, schedules, introspections, and loves. Fitting into someone else’s schedules, no matter how close and dear those others may be to us. To be an artist who questions, then reexamines, and then tries to paint—and at the same time to be everything she wants and needs to be—is certainly not simple.
Stepping out of intimacy, both creative and intuitive, in all its manifestations, does not seem easy to us as viewers. And yet, it is.
The exibition is open at 14.12.2025. at the Sebastian Gallery in Dubrovnik.