About
MOVEMENT. FREEDOM. PRESENCE.
TAMARA ANDJUS
Tamara Andjus (b. 1982) is a contemporary painter based in Zurich, Switzerland, whose work explores movement, freedom and presence through an expressive visual language that moves fluidly between abstraction and figuration.
Recognized for her dynamic brushwork, layered colour and instinctive approach to composition, Andjus works primarily with acrylic and oil on canvas. Figures and forms emerge through gesture, light and atmosphere, creating paintings charged with energy and emotional intensity. Rather than describing her subjects literally, she seeks to capture their presence, the fleeting moment, movement or emotion that exists beyond the visible.
Horses and the equestrian world occupy a distinctive place within her practice, embodying strength, elegance and freedom. Women, dancers, landscapes and, more recently, golf and its surrounding environments form further recurring subjects. Across these different motifs, her work is united by a recognizable visual language in which movement becomes a means of expression and colour carries emotion.
Originally trained in law, Andjus holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and began her professional life in the legal field before ultimately choosing to devote herself fully to art. This unconventional path has shaped an artistic practice defined by independence, discipline and intuition, as well as an openness to different cultures and environments.
Her work has been presented internationally through solo and group exhibitions, galleries, art fairs and cultural projects in cities including Zurich, Vienna, New York, Miami, London, Paris, Munich and Rome, as well as in Montenegro, a place of personal significance and inspiration. Recent bodies of work and solo projects include NOVA, Spotlight, The Games, PULSE and TERRA, MARE, each exploring different dimensions of her evolving artistic language.
Her paintings have received international awards and recognition and have appeared in art publications and cultural media. Her works are held in private collections and continue to reach an international audience through exhibitions, galleries and collaborations.
Beyond her own studio practice, Andjus is actively engaged in the wider artistic community. She contributes to mentoring and art education, participates in selected curatorial and cultural projects, and supports emerging creativity through initiatives involving both artists and young people. Her commitment to art also extends to charitable projects, for which she has donated works and participated in fundraising initiatives.
Andjus also creates selected commissioned works, approaching each commission as an original artistic interpretation rather than a reproduction of an existing image. In dialogue with the collector, personal stories, environments and ideas are translated into works that remain unmistakably part of her own artistic language.
Across changing subjects, places and bodies of work, one principle remains constant in Tamara Andjus’s practice: to capture life not as something static, but as energy in motion.
Review
To stand in front of a work of hers is akin to entering a world filled with wonder, emotion and admiration.
Helen Haubensack-Bitterli
Looking at the works of Tamara Andjus today we can immediately recognise that she possesses a wealth and depth of innate talent which no doubt led to her receiving critical acclaim and a prestigious art award at an unusually young age. Not only has she gone on to fulfill that early promise recognised in her she has indeed surpassed it and in so doing developed her own unique and masterful style that stands out and is much admired.
Her willingness to experiment is clearly apparent and shows itself through her breadth of subject matter ranging from animals and humans to landscapes and her depth of techniques and use of dfferent materials all of which she masterfully infuses with her distinctly individual style. Andjus works from her innermost emotions and paints directly onto the canvas without the aid of any preparatory sketches. As a result, the final work is a dramatic conclusion to a journey of intense emotion transmitted onto the canvas via the seemingly effortless motion of her beautiful brushwork coupled with her vibrant and deliberate color palette choices. Her works are resplendent with careful and deliberate intention with regards the use of colour as well as the elimination of details that are deemed unnecessary to conveying the overall underlying emotions.
Many of Anjus’s works draw on universal time honored themes tackled over time by many artists eg. ballet dancers (Edgar Degas / 1934-1917), noble steeds (George Stubbs / 1724-1806), Geishas and noble ladies etc but she draws from these traditions and provides them with a contemporary, refreshing twist thus drawing our gaze from the initially seemingly recognisable to a remarkably new perspective that at once challenges and excites us.
To stand in front of a work of hers is akin to entering a world filled with wonder, emotion and admiration.
Helen Haubensack-Bitterli
Curator and owner or the ARTful Eye Consulting