Left banking to merge science with art
Viktorija Janić, 47, born in Novi Sad, is the only artist in Serbia who nurtures the “paper filigree” art technique by S. Bajić
05 May 2022, 16:15
When a successful businesswoman, with the academic title of “graduate economist,” upon entering her fifth decade, replaces a corporate world with an easel and an art atelier, the least she deserves could be a medal for courage.
LEFT BANKING TO MERGE SCIENCE WITH ART: Viktorija Janić, 47, born in Novi Sad, is the only artist in Serbia who nurtures the “paper filigree” art technique. Photograph: private archive. Viktorija Janić, 47, born in Novi Sad, used to take to the complex banking business like a duck to water but has decided to dive freestyle instead into an existentially insecure ocean of artistry and has since reached high levels of achievement and generally positive reviews by a large circle of art connoisseurs.
– I design my installations relying on the “paper filigree” art technique, which implies the manipulation of paper strips to create decoratively designed shapes – says Janić, the only artist in Serbia who nurtures this specific filigree expressionism.
– The process of creating a tri-dimensional painting is time-consuming. The topics I cover come from the world that surrounds us, the animals, plants, flowers, architecture – anything that could spark interest of children, as they are my primary target audience. I imagine my art pieces in their surrounding – play rooms, pre-school and school venues. Although born in Bačka Palanka, Janić completed her compulsory education in Novi Sad, and then embarked on a journey across the Pond where she graduated in the field of Business Administration from the North Virginia College in Alexandria. Her business results gained her the “honorary citizenship” of Harrisbourg, Pennsylvania in 2009; however, in 2011 she returned to Serbia, graduated in the field of International Business in Belgrade and enrolled to specialist studies in Banking and Insurance in Novi Sad.
– I used to work in banks, corporate systems, ship management; in the fields of management, marketing, trade, etc. in several states in the US, in Cyprus and in Serbia, where I returned because I love my country. As a student in the US, I visited an art exhibition of Lisa Nilsson, an artist who works with paper filigree, and was completely fascinated. I did my research into this field, and upon my return to Serbia I wanted to apply something new, innovative. It took me two years to complete further research and to educate myself about this field, and, here I am, creating for over two and a half years – states Janić.
FIBONACCI AS INSPIRATION
The knowledge she gained throughout her schooling, Janić confirms, she now uses to merge math with art.
– Opposites attract, art joins them, and I see art not as an obligation but rather as the need to manifest my vision of essence. I am particularly inspired by work of Leonardo Fibonacci, the most talented Italian mathematician from the medieval period, by geometry, by the golden ratio, numbers and proportions that can be found in math and in nature. I equal them to the aesthetically pleasing proportion in my little atelier – says Janić.
