Krešimira Gojanović »Mitološke preobrazbe«

Krešimira Gojanović was born on 13 February 1970 in Osijek, Croatia. In 1989, she completed her studies in painting at the School of Applied Arts in Zagreb. In 1993, she graduated from the Department of Printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where she studied under Prof. Ante Kuduz. In 2010, she obtained a master’s degree in Visual Communication Design from UL ALUO, under the mentorship of Prof. Milan Erič.

She is a member of the Croatian Freelance Artists’ Association, the Croatian Association of Fine Artists in Zagreb (HDLU Zagreb), and the Slovenian BMG association for the promotion of tourism and the arts. To date, she has held 51 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 130 juried group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. She has also taken part in numerous art colonies organised for charitable purposes, and her works are held in the collections of several Croatian galleries and museums.

In addition to painting and printmaking, she works in graphic and web design, photography, illustration, art theory and art marketing. She also develops and organises creative, visual arts and design workshops for children and adults. Since 2015, she has been the creator and editor of the online portal Zagrebački likovni umjetnici [Visual Artists of Zagreb], dedicated to promoting professional visual artists from Zagreb and Croatia.

In her series of drawings and paintings Mitološke preobrazbe [Mythological Transformations], Krešimira Gojanović explores the timeless realms of ancient cultures, evoking the world of classical gods, mythical heroes and hybrid creatures such as the centaur and the Minotaur. For her, myth is not merely a remnant of the distant past, but a living, pulsating source of imagination whose symbolic language continues to resonate within our collective unconscious. Using the traditional technique of coloured ink on paper, she combines the precision of filigree-like lines with the expressive power of pure colour, creating visual labyrinths in which the boundaries between the human, animal and divine are continually blurred, intertwined and re-established.

Each drawing in the series represents a distinctive stopping point on an inner journey. Some works reveal the metamorphosis of the feminine principle through depictions of various goddesses and sorceresses, while others explore the Promethean drama of humanity’s eternal desire for knowledge, transcendence and spiritual freedom. The series also features mythical lovers who must journey through a metaphorical underworld to rediscover the lost parts of their own souls.

The artist seeks not merely to reinterpret or visually depict ancient myths, but to create her own mystical spaces in which ancient archetypes speak through a contemporary and personal visual language. Myth thus becomes a meeting point between past and present, the collective and the intimate. The exhibition invites viewers to recognise their own symbols in these mythological transformations and reflect on their personal search for spiritual meaning.

For the artist, the series is also a space for play and unfettered imagination. She places mythical heroes in various scenes, relationships and situations in which they are transformed and brought to life through drawing. Their metamorphoses also reflect the artist’s own spiritual journey through the different times and spaces of our planet, where personal experience intertwines with universal imagery.