Ms. Dragana Crnjak

Professor
Ms. Dragana Crnjak - profile photo

Ms. Dragana Crnjak

Professor

Art

Bliss Hall

phone: (330) 941-1860

dcrnjak@ysu.edu

www.draganacrnjak.com

Bio

Bosnian born, Dragana Crnjak moved to the United States in 1997. She received her BFA in Painting from Myers School of Art at the University of Akron, Ohio in 2002 and her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in 2004. She is recipient of Virginia Museum of Fine Art Professional Fellowship in drawing and multiple Individual Excellence Awards from Ohio Arts Council. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is collected by numerous private and public collections.

Dragana Crnjak's studio practice has been based in interdisciplinary art practices, combining painting, drawing, design, public art and site-specific installations. Driven by questions of belonging and identity, Crnjak explores perception through mark-making and patterns - tracing fragmented architectural and natural landscapes to suggests spaces in transition - as still being shaped, built or erased.

Research Interests

- Contemporary Painting and Drawing
- Mural and Public Art
- Interdisciplinary art practices
- Abstract and representational painting and drawing
- Pattern / Design
- Memory and Time
- Perception and Cognitive processes
- Abstracted Landscape
- Site specific art/ large scale painting and drawing

Teaching Interests

- Painting
- Drawing
- Interdisciplinary Art
- Mural and Public Art
- Art installation/ Site Specific Art

  • Education
    • 2004

      MFA, Painting and Printmaking

      Virginia Commonwealth University

    • 2004

      MFA, Painting and Printmaking

      Virginia Commonwealth University

    • 2002

      BFA, Painting, minor in printmaking

      Myers School of Art, University of Akron

    • 2002

      BFA, Painting & Printmaking

      Myers School of Art

  • Awards and Honors
    • 2023

      Youngstown State University

      University Research Grant

      URC was awarded to support development of a current project Cinematic Time in Painting, consisting of sixteen paintings planned to be completed by the end of June 2024.

    • 2023

      Ohio Arts Council

      Individual Excellence Award/ Visual Art

    • 2022

      Youngstown State University

      Distinguished Professorship in Teaching

      DP in teaching was awarded based on the activities I provided students since 2006 - professional and community engagement experiences including collaborative, mural and public art projects, as well as exhibition opportunities/ exposures.

    • 2020

      Youngstown State University

      Faculty Improvement Leave

    • 2018

      Youngstown State University

      Distinguished Professorship in Scholarship

    • 2015

      Ohio Arts Council

      Individual Excellence Award/ Visual Art

    • 2012

      Youngstown State University

      Research Professorship Award

      Development of a body of work (12 paintings) based on travels to Iceland and exploration of Icelandic landscape and concepts of instability and impermanence in contemporary landscape.

    • 2011

      Ohio Arts Council

      Individual Excellence Award/ Visual Art

      Competitive and juried selection of Ohio based artists working in visual arts.

    • 2008

      Ohio Arts Council

      Individual Excellence Award/ Visual Art

      Competitive and juried selection of Ohio based artists working in visual arts.

    • 2006

      Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI. Selected by Dominic Molon, curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

      First Place, Drawing No Conclusions