My artistic name is Lana P. and I was born in Rijeka, Croatia in 1989. I got my first art education through the studies of the History of Art at the University of Zagreb (2007-2010) and the studies of the multimedia in the service of cultural heritage at the University of Coimbra, Portugal (2010-2012). Later I took specialization courses in graphic design, as well as private lessons in academic drawing with Ms. Elisavet Dionisiou in Athens, Greece (2022-2024).
Throughout 2010s, I traveled a lot, worked in marketing with a special emphasis on social media/digital marketing, I was often responsible for photography and text, and hence had a unique opportunity to feel all the paradoxes of the modern living, and how it still shows a beauty in disguise, and a trace of hope. Many of my photography work from the period between 2009 and 2019 showcase the concept of people on places, where the crowds on touristy places which I often frequented are not uncomfortable or something to avoid in photography, but are rather interesting phenomena of contemporary existence, with a huge potential for artistic exploration.
Artist statement
My work explores the ambiguity and doubt in many ways these show up. The matters of presence and absence are the core contrasts, and in this tension, we come across paradoxes, things that pretty clearly make no sense, but still offer beauty. I play with natural and man made landscapes in a surrealist way or in a way to provoke a startle. Seemingly realistic environments of presence provoke the question: "wait, what?".
My art is intensely focused on concepts that give out unorthodox storytelling, while the materials adapt to it. I create using oils, acrylics, watercolors, markers, collage, pencil, as well as digital media. I transfer the message across this materials, experimenting in what each material can offer. Watercolors solve the issue of an immediate, clear, and blatant vision. Acrylics, often combined with sticked collage, allow complex layers that pile up until they form an even greater ambiguity. Oils allow for the process, for a development from a vague concept to a complete motif.
My first solo exhibition, titled "human too small, world too big" brought up a dialog on presence and absence, on abandonment and reencounter. Many artworks contain two people and an open question about their relationship, their height, shape, or even their gender. They are isolated in an imaginary and confined space, a single task to highlight whatever gets missed through the crowds.
Finally, my work suggests ways towards the reconciliation and points of encounter. It is up to a viewer to find them, and decide how romantic or desperate these points are, or whether they are happy or melancholic.
On the painting "Dead-end Date", the assumption of dating is brought through the title and the way the figures are aligned, while nothing in the motif suggests dating - these are just two people sitting on the same table, and equally looking at their phones, somewhere in the dead end of the corridor of an industrial building. The "Deep Down" explores the depth in a similar way, not giving humans as much chance for the visibility as cars get, while the world of more idyllic light and colors seems unattainable. The "They found parking" is made as an intimate association to the city of Nafplio, where a long gone train line used to pass, and the station remains. The heavy diagonal division suggests the contrast between the two ideas of finding parking. The board writing the Greek word meaning "somewhere" is made to hook the Greek-speaking audience quickly, and to cause a slight sense of doubt and mystery to the non Greek-speaking viewer. Finally, the "Confused seasons" bring some irony on the weather that does not cease to confuse as, as it requires a viewer to pay a strong attention to details that put the summer and the winter in a direct conflict.
I live and work in Athens, and I am a professional artist since 2023.