Jelena Gvozdenac Martinov
Country: Serbia
Title: Have a nice trip
Jelena Gvozdenac Martinov, born 1973, started her career in art and culture with a bachelor of arts. In 2010, she graduated in Arts and Painting at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.
In 2000, she enrolled in postgraduate studies of drawing at the same institution, and in 2002 reported her master’s thesis “Obverse, portrait, reverse”. In 2001, she worked as a fine arts teacher at one of Zrenjanin’s elementary schools.
From 2003 to 2004 she was an intern at the National Museum Zrenjanin after which she got a job in this institution as a painter-restorer. From 2006 to 2007 she conducted professional training at the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments – Petrovaradin.
In 2007, she passed the state exam at The Museum of Vojvodina in Novi Sad and thus obtained the professional title of painter-restorer. She was the director of the National Museum of Zrenjanin from 2016 to 2021.
Up to now, she has led 32 different projects and was the Serbian coordinator of the Erasmus+ KA2 Project “Train2Sustain” which looked at the intersection of youth work, art and digitalization.
She is a member of the Museum Society of Serbia and the Conservators Society of Serbia. Today she is the director of the Contemporary Gallery of the Art Colony of Ecka, Zrenjanin.
“The painting is made using acrylic technique on canvas. The image explains the path of life. The ship is the carrier of life and is always present in my paintings. Sometimesi t’s in calm waters, sometimes in turbulent waters. Fish themselves symbolize many things, from worries to saints. The colours are bright and varied. Everyone can see the picture in their own way, can find nuances and ways of reading the manifold symbols.“