Funtana Painting

Kristina Kinkela Valčić is a visual artist and designer who specializes in abstract art. Her exclusively abstract work allows her to constantly explore new painting techniques, inviting the viewer to see and feel her art in diverse ways. In her expressive-emotional manner, she is transmitting abstract mental maps onto the canvas. That manifests in multiple layers of acrylic and mixed media. All those layers intertwine, complement, flirt and negate each other and form harmonious imaginary landscapes. Existing places do not serve as an inspiration for those imaginary landscapes. The described process is very intuitive and intimate, which points to the fact that the identity and inner states of the creator are crucial for the entire process of creating. In contrast to the organic shapes, she sometimes uses geometric lines, which present peculiar mental boundaries and frames that impose themselves in the same unnatural way in the real world. The result allows the observers to feel and experience her art in their way and encourages them to fantasize and be free from reality. She received her MA in Art Education and Art History at the Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka. Kristina works at her studio in Opatija, a town situated on the northern Croatian coast. Kristina Kinkela Valčić is also a Ph.D. student in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at the University of Zagreb. Her thesis is concerned with historical changes in conceptions of the cultural identity of the Kastav region. She claims that identities are a result of negotiations between social participants and that they are constantly changing. These facts reflect in Kristina's artwork. In the same way, her abstract, intuitive, and intimate representations of imaginary landscapes realize their essence in communication with observers who receive and interpret presented visual codes in their way. She exhibited both nationally and internationally and she is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists (Rijeka, Zagreb).