Zorica Purlija: Artist Statement & Bio

Inspired by her maternal lineage and mother-daughter relationships, the photographic practice of Zorica Purlija nurtures the poetic possibility of human attachments. Often exploring the nuances of vulnerability, her works are an intuitive expression of how we forge connection and care.

 

Purlija’s latest body of work focuses on connection to landscape, exploring the subtle clash of feeling in crashing water and the scrubby bushland of the northern coastal area. She builds visceral surface texture through glitch and superimposition, at once an intervention of traditional landscape photography and an encounter with the multiplicity of sensation.

 

Curator Sarah Rose writes, “The Fall reminds us that we must find respite in nature and question reciprocity and co-existence in order to move towards a more sustainable eco-future in which there is the imposition to heal and become symbiotic with nature, or risk falling into the deep end”.

Zorica Purlija (b. Montenegro) is a contemporary visual artist based on Gadigal land. Working predominately in photography, Purlija’s work is based on attachment and care for the primary relationships and landscape she finds herself in. Informed by a background in graphic and digital media, her photographic practice draws on abstraction and collage to forge an ethereal reflective visual language. Recent exhibitions include Fade Into You, Portraits of Yumi and Transience.

In 2020 Purlija completed a MFA in Photo Media at UNSW Art and Design. She has been a finalist in the Gosford Art Prize (2023), the National Photographic Portrait Prize (2010, 2009, 2008), HeadOn Portrait Prize (2022), the Ravenswood Women's Art Prize (2020), the Fisher Ghost Art Award (2017), the MAMA Photography Prize (2016), the Winifred Bowness Award (2014), the Ulrick Award (2011) and the Olive Cotton Award (2009). She has exhibited in New York, Zurich and Venice.

Zorica Purlija: CV June, 2024 Download