Foreward for the catalog in the Heritage House Gallery, Belgrade 2022
The painting world of Jelena Minić Mrđen
Stepping into the imaginary introduces us to Jelena Minić's painting opus, which strives to communicate with a wider audience, with the aspiration that the painting affects the thoughts and emotions of the viewer. The process of creating a work of art is related to the contemporary moment in which Jelena places the heritage and mastery of past eras. The time required for the creation of a painting is an aspect that Jelena Minić remains faithful to even now, when this concept has changed. Her paintings evolve over a long period of time, but she does not give up on that in the process of work. The painter preserves time, indicating to its importance and necessity even today, when the necessity of time spent in work is often neglected. Jelena remains consistent with the knowledge of previous epochs and the most valuable thing that the past carries in it. Artistic inspiration reaches the unconscious being of the artist, awakens the cognitive energy that directs Jelena towards the search for her own identity. The painter unconsciously absorbs the legacy of fine art from her earliest childhood, and today she unobtrusively incorporates it into her creativity.
A well-established, recognizable style that has been producing fresh and original creations for decades is based on courage and constant experimentation with both form and materials. She opts for large formats, even monumental ones, which essentially correspond to mass perception. The complexity of the performed works is closely related to the artist's complex view of the world. The paintings bear the legacy of the magnificence of wall painting, the experience of surrealism, cubism, enformel (informal art), collage, photography and film. Jelena's paintings represent an unrestrained flow of consciousness; they are also segments of dreams, emotions, hopes and desires expressed in abstract forms and objectivity. These deeply contemplative images of a complex narrative are freed from form and academicism. Her paintings are set in a real or fictional world, at the same time in the present, distant past or in the future. The images are unburdened, without limitations, while she finds motives in everyday life, mythology and ancient civilizations. There is an inevitable association with a kaleidoscope, and by changing the angle of observation or a different mood, the experience and narrative of the image change its meaning. Or maybe an association with pixilation or countless images that appear before the eye of the observer during the day on social networks forming thoughts and experiences coloring the daily routine with a certain mood. With the names of the paintings, the artist suggests a deeper meaning, opening up the space of myths, legends and fairy tales that we dream about. Thus, Lilith, Shaman, Kiss in the Botanical Garden, Forbidden City, Angel's Love, Dragon, Thinker, Pet Cemetery open an endless space of free associations, the interweaving of dreams and reality.
The authentic painting work of Jelena Minić was executed in a combined technique, which opens up the possibility of moving the boundaries and masterful execution of her ideas. Sand, glue, newspapers, found objects become a unique whole and matter that is transformed by color, as a basic art principle. The seemingly chaotic mass of tactile properties generates associations derived from the chaos of diverse elements - symbols, icons, spots, light/darkness, messages and words. Jelena Minić manages to combine all these factors into a stable image structure. Arbitrariness, contrasts, gestures, colors, textures and forms do not depict the real environment but create the illusion of arbitrariness, while at the same time everything is under the direct control of the painter. The complete artistic experience gives birth to the harmony of the work of art through mistakes and accidental forms.
Jelena Minić's art is unique, clearly separated from being tied to the characteristics of a particular artistic direction, from which the diversity of artistic solutions emerges. The paintings are not subject to general places and rules, the inspiration is as natural as the artist's talent. The works of Jelena Minić are free from platitudes, they are spontaneous, while unrestrained imagination presents new forms of aesthetics, which is a special curiosity today, when everything has already been seen.
Slavica Obradinović, Art historian