Connecting Hands 1 & 2, 2025

Connecting Eyes 1 & 2, 2025 

Textile, thread and gouache 

105 x 12 cm (hand 1), 90 x 12 cm (hands 2), 22 x 47 cm (eyes) 

Lucija Zaja is a Croatian mixed-media artist. Her work is a fusion of abstraction and figuration, where her main sources of inspiration include memories and recollections related to her experience with war and growing up in Croatia. What fuels her practice most, are themes related to trauma, and how certain events transform our emotional, psychological, and physical body. Experimenting with sewing and doll-making helps her navigate how to approach this heavy topic with more playfulness, hoping to find inspiration through meditative practice of hand stitching. The hands and eyes invite viewers to question how they feel, what they see, and just to generally attune to their bodies and experiences. Through this exploration, she is trying to investigate where she belongs, how the environment she lives in shapes her, and if it’s possible to embrace our tragedies as inspiration.