Ms. Dragana Crnjak

Ms. Dragana Crnjak

Professor

Art

Bliss Hall

phone: (330) 941-1860

dcrnjak@ysu.edu

www.draganacrnjak.com

Bio

Bosnian born, Dragana Crnjak moved to the United States in 1997. She received her BFA in Painting from Myers School of Art at the University of Akron, Ohio in 2002 and her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in 2004. She is recipient of Virginia Museum of Fine Art Professional Fellowship in drawing and Individual Excellence Awards from Ohio Arts Council.

Dragana Crnjak toys with viewers’ perceptions in wall drawings that somehow manage to create impossible illusions even as they seem only fleetingly present. Her fragmented images, drawn with charcoal directly on the wall, insist on the almost physical presence of the artist’s hand. She has surely and literally left her mark. Yet her images might well be in the process of arriving or leaving by teleporter, as fragmentary and unstable as they appear.

Research Interests

- Abstraction
- Memory and Time
- Perception and Cognitive processes
- Abstracted Landscape
- Site specific art/ large scale painting and drawing
- Mural and Public Art

Teaching Interests

- Painting
- Drawing
- Interdisciplinary Art
- Mural and Public Art
- Art installation/ Site Specific Art

• Education

  • 2004

    MFA, Painting and Printmaking

    Virginia Commonwealth University

  • 2002

    BFA, Painting & Printmaking

    Myers School of Art

• Awards and Honors

  • May 2023

    Youngstown State University

    University Research Grant

    URC was awarded to support development of a current project Cinematic Time in Painting, consisting of sixteen paintings planned to be completed by the end of June 2024.

  • February 2023

    Ohio Arts Council

    Individual Excellence Award in Visual Art

    I was awarded the highly competitive and selective OAC award for the fourth time since 2006, for the innovative and relevant research in painting and drawing, and the continuous commitment to my studio practice over the last three years with twelve exhibitions - out of which three were one-person exhibitions.

  • April 2022

    Youngstown State University

    Distinguished Professorship in Teaching

    DP in teaching was awarded based on the activities I provided students since 2006 - professional and community engagement experiences including collaborative, mural and public art projects, as well as exhibition opportunities/ exposures.

  • April 2020

    Youngstown State University

    Faculty Improvement Leave

    Development of a large body of work consisting of 20 drawings and 8 paintings exploring new painting and drawing processes combining digital and traditional drawing processes through exploration of ethnic Serbian patterns as landscapes.

  • 2018

    YSU

    Distinguished Professorship in Scholarship

    Recognition based on consistent and relevant scholarship activities including art exhibitions, grants and dedicated studio research.

  • 2015

    Ohio Arts Council

    Individual Excellence Award/ Visual Art

    Competitive and juried selection of Ohio based artists working in visual arts.

  • March 2012

    Youngstown State University

    Research Professorship Award

    Development of a body of work (12 paintings) based on travels to Iceland and exploration of Icelandic landscape and concepts of instability and impermanence in contemporary landscape.

  • 2011

    Ohio Arts Council

    Individual Excellence Award/ Visual Art

    Competitive and juried selection of Ohio based artists working in visual arts.

  • 2008

    Ohio Arts Council

    Individual Excellence Award/ Visual Art

    Competitive and juried selection of Ohio based artists working in visual arts.

  • 2006

    Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI. Selected by Dominic Molon, curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

    First Place, Drawing No Conclusions