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Ivana Zivic Rooms of Water

ivana Zivic Rooms of Water

Artist Ivana Zivic Rooms of Water paintings are a series of artworks which blend realism, fantasy and montage to result in surreal pieces that depict clothed human figures submerged underwater. Only they are not in lakes, pools or oceans but instead are swimming, floating and gliding through interiors.

Ivana Zivic Rooms of Water

ivana zivic dream of freedom
Dream of Freedom, oil on canvas, 2020

Depicted in oils on canvas, this ongoing series features individual women swimming within predominantly baroque, ornate rooms or places of worship. The surreal imagery represents being in search of, exploring and connecting with one’s innermost feelings and significant life moments.

irina zivic paintings
Breath of Freedom, oil on canvas, 2020
irina zivic swimming paintings
Breath of Freedom (detail), oil on canvas, 2020

Born in Sarajevo, Ivana has both an undergraduate and graduate degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Arts in Belgrade. With over 20 solo and 50 group shows abroad, the Serbian painter has been honored by many juried art shows and the recipient of many awards.

Zivic show Galerija Lucida Belgrade
An installation view of her recent show at Belgrade’s Galerija Lucida
rooms of water series of paintings
Zen 2017, oil on canvas, 150 x 140 cm

In her work, the subjects are swimming through a metaphorical depiction of emotions. Exploring their inner selves as their surroundings represent moments and milestones in that individual’s life. The water’s weightiness appears to represent both the burdens or obstacles under which the subject may be drowning yet simultaneously wash away the pain and the past, allowing the subject to emerge as if newly baptized.

swimmer paintings

Below The Ceiling That Flake, 2014, oil on canvas, 200 x 150 cm

paintings of people underwater
Gold Room II, 2015, oil on canvas, 150 x 115 cm
ivana zivic water paintings
Room 237 (an homage to The Shining), 2014, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm

Deftly painted, there is an appealing quietness to her work. When underwater, ambient sound is subtracted and other senses are increased. Because each work features only one individual, the paintings feel private, personal…almost invasive.

ivana Živić
Music, 2017, oil on canvas, 150 x 140 cm
contemporary art
Solaris, 2017, oil on canvas, 90 x 120 cm
underwater art
Touch, oil on canvas,

Some are actively moving through the water –as if in search of something– while others are still, floating in a sea of calm, absorbing all that surrounds them.

swimming in rooms
Breath, oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm
Ivana Zivic art
Room of Light, 2014, oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm
underwater paintings
Plise, 2019, oil on canvas, 80 x 120 cm

“Water is just a portal to universe where you can fly, but you can’t breathe.”- Ivana Zivic

Ivana Zivic rooms of water paintings
Turquoise, 2018, oil on canvas, 200 x 150 cm
serbian figurative painter
Underwater, 2017, oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

Ivana was born in 1979 in Sarajevo (BIH). She graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Arts in Belgrade, Department of Painting (2004). She completed her postgraduate studies at the same university (2008). She has exhibited in 20 solo and over 50 group exhibitions at home and abroad.

Irina Zivic at work in her studio
Irina Zivic at work in her studio

Awards: Praise for drawing, Vladimir Velickovic Fund 2016, Rotary Club Award 2014, Belgrade ; Award for Production Work, Mangelos Fund 2012, The Second Biennial of Drawings in Pancevo. Artist in Residence at Serbian Art Month, Art hub, Abu Dhabi 2018 ; GLO’ART (Global Art Centre) Lanaken, Belgium (2015) and at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2009).

Keep an eye out! The artist has an upcoming show this summer (June-July) at Galerie Boris

"Somniat Libertas (Rêve de liberté )" at Galerie Boris
“Somniat Libertas (Rêve de liberté )” at Galerie Boris

You can find her work at the following links as well as her website:

https://www.instagram.com/ivana_zivic_j/
https://www.saatchiart.com/ivanazivicj
https://www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/82263
​https://www.facebook.com/ivanajzivic

Ivana Zivic