Vanja Vizner: Visionary Art

Vanja Vizner is a multimedia artist and designer from Croatia that creates detailed psychedelic designs that explore various themes, such as spirituality and inner growth. He has approached life in a spontaneous manner, setting off to various countries without the guarantees of food and shelter, to find himself and ultimately grow as a person. He now lives in Dublin, Ireland, with hopes to make a name for himself with his ‘visionary art’.

Vanja’s Background

Vanja grew up in Kutina, Croatia, a small town that was known for its ammonia production. Despite its industrial background, it had a thriving creative and cultural community, particularly, an alternative hardcore and punk music scene with liberal values.

At a young age, Vanja showed more of an interest in creative endeavours. While he struggled with his grades, he always found comfort in creativity. His school textbooks were covered in doodles and robotic caricatures.

While he struggled in other subjects, he spoke highly of an art teacher that inspired his creativity, saying “I had the fortune to have a great art teacher that was really proactive, pushing everyone to create and leave their mark.”

He also credits his family for encouraging his artistic pursuits, saying “My grandfather was a painter who painted nature portraits and church frescoes. My mother taught me about creativity and possibility. So with this, I had a good start to combine all of that into my art”.

Outside of school, Vanja and other teens in Kutina put great effort into reviving a punk and hardcore club that operated out of a defunct army base, Baraka.

He soon discovered graffiti and street art, identifying this as an important milestone in his creative journey, saying “I think when I started to do graffiti , everything started to unravel more and more; it really brought some structure, which gave me confidence to continue on my journey.”

Vanja’s family was one of the fortunate few that had Internet access, but due to his bad grades, his father punished him by barring access to it. He only began to dabble with digital graphic design when he moved to Rijeka and got his first computer.

His foray into graphic design started with simple photo manipulations in Photoshop. He became more proficient on the software and began doing small design projects such as t-shirts, logos, and album covers.

After highschool, Vanja wanted to further his studies at an art school in Zagreb. He passed his entrance exams, but the fees were high, a bit too high for his family to afford.

Feeling directionless, he became hedonistic, dabbling in partying in illicit substances . During this time, he continued to sketch and create, but he doubted that he would ever make a living off art or create elaborate art pieces.

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His Spiritual Journey

At one of these parties, Vanja met someone who rekindled his drive to create more elaborate art pieces. At the Lost Theory festival, in Croatia, he met, and befriended, Neil Gibson, an influential UV artist and figure in the European psychedelic trance scene.

He spoke of this encounter, saying “I said to myself, I can do that, so I started to do designs again.”

Vanja longed to find purpose, so he made the decision to search for it beyond the borders of Croatia. He set off into the unknown with no real planning and very little money.

He speaks of this, saying “I thought that it would be a great way to really push myself to overcome my fear of the unknown and become a man.”

He continues, “So I started to follow my own light, wherever it may lead. I am on my own. I did what people would consider crazy and foolish; it was foolish.”

He hiked great distances, couch surfed when he could, but at times, had to sleep rough and went without food. He found sporadic employment , but most of his earnings went to food or temporary shelter.

His light eventually led him to Belgrade, Serbia, where he found an anarchist squat, Inex.

Listening to Vanja’s description of Inex, it sounded like a community of like-minded individuals that encouraged artistic expression and freedom of thought. The community seemed to be governed by its own set of rules.

When asked about the experience, Vanja replied “My spiritual journey really started there. Since I didn’t have money for food, I started to rely on my faith and good will.”

While he found many like minded creatives in the community, relations became strained with others.

This period of his life was characterised by uncertainty and insecurity. To deal with these tough times, Vanja began meditating. He found that through meditation, he could achieve inner stillness but was startled by, what he calls, a “presence” that assured him everything will be okay.

He began to jot down the emotions that came to him and these writings were to become the basis of his first art piece.

He describes these writings, saying “ It was related to my inner self, my mind functions, and my previous mindstates. I had the chance to completely become an author of my own story rather than satisfying expectations that my family had for my life.”

Through meditation, Vanja claims that he was able to “turn off” his pain receptors for when he got ill as he had no money to seek medical treatment.

“This experience really opened my eyes to something that is mostly considered impossible. So I started to nurture the spiritual development that I was given, which was based on unconditional love and service to those that really needed it.”

Vanja did eventually secure a roof over his head, but he admits that it was with addicts that were receiving treatment. While these circumstances were less than ideal, he was grateful, saying, “Those were the people that helped me, and I also wanted to bring them some sort of wellness.”

It was during this period, 2020 to 2021, that Vanja began to work on his award winning design, Trinity.

Life became a little more stable for Vanja, eventually securing work and accommodation in France. But due to the owner of the accommodation being arrested, Vanja had to resort to couch surfing and camping again.

“Another winter spent in a tent. It was hard, but it built me up as a person. Those experiences really built me up as a person. I started to appreciate small things in life, and problems that I had before, suddenly didn’t even matter.”

He continues, “If it weren’t for those big downfalls, I would probably not be aware of how troubles can rule your life. Challenges stay, but our mental attitude towards them is what suffering really is.”

After learning of many Croatians moving to Ireland, Vanja decided to take another leap into the unknown and decided to follow suit.

After years of struggling to survive and isolation, he had withdrawn into himself. He found navigating social situations difficult due to his introversion. He felt that integrating into a society that was renowned for their warmth and talkative nature would be a challenge and could help him out of his shell.

He had also heard of Ireland’s artistic heritage and interest in fostering creative individuals. He felt that this would be a beneficial move to grow as an artist and individual.

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Visionary Art

Vanja created his studio, Art of Core, back in 2015. Since then, Vanja has added various designs, animations, and even some wood carving over the years. The site lists Vanja’s designs as “visionary art”.

When questioned about what visionary art is, Vanya replied, “ In my view, visionary art and a spiritual journey are closely related. People say art is meaningless, and it is somewhat true, but if you give it meaning, then it isn’t meaningless.”

“To me, visionary art is meaningful art. That’s a beauty in art that it can go everywhere; it can take on any shape, form, colour, light, or just nothing, which is also art.”

He continues, “A spiritual journey for me is all about challenging yourself and your beliefs to see what’s beyond them, uncovering and discovering.”

Vanja spoke about his evolution as an artist. He began manipulating photos he took, and from there his designs became more original and the details became more elaborate.

When asked about his artistic evolution, he said, “This allowed me to create a more organic process, because design opens itself, grows like a flower, and can create elaborate structures that are connected into meaningful visuals.”

“My art requires me to be rational and creative, so it has a structure, but at the same time, that structure has the freedom to develop in any shape or form … I let the design guide me through the process.”

Before the interview, my eyes scanned through his designs. They are elaborate digital tapestries with intricate detailing that coaxes the viewer to search for a deeper meaning hidden within. I have seen psychedelic art in the past, but the majority of them are purely aesthetic, surface level creations with no real interpretation required.

I asked Vanja to walk me through his piece, Trinity, which won Bronze at the prestigious A’Design Award in 2021, under the category of Graphics, Illustration, and VisualCommunication Design.

He points out that this is a piece about personal growth and a pursuit of knowledge about oneself and applies to all. Vanja states, “This design is a walk-through of everything that person is going through. From the ground up, it shows people that people are static in thought, and have closed minds.”

“If you look at the bottom, there are people that are kind of like kneeling down. They do what they were told, And not moving, not using their intelligence to find something new. With regards to knowledge, they are not growing.”

The object they are kneeling over is what Vanja calls the “the bell of consciousness ” and it represents your “inner spark”, your desire to gain more knowledge.

Slightly above that, you can see a gold black pyramid, a representation of societal growth and enlightenment.

Two colours branch out  from the ring, the blue representing masculine (left), while pink (right) represents feminine.

I noticed that gender dichotomy was a recurring theme in his works. When asked about this, Vanja said, “I believe we possess both qualities, you know, like a father provides for family and creates structure, practical things. But to develop in life, you need nurturing, something that is associated with femininity.”

He stresses that both are essential for a person to ‘grow’ into a self actualised being.

He continues “We grow kind of like plants grow. Like plants, we grow into the unknown. The female side deals more with emotion and social interactions.”

Going back to his design, the left side is the feminine side (pink) and the right is masculine side. The orbs that are entangled in the pink and blue strands are “bubbles of opinion” that are either aligned to masculine or feminine notions. Once the individual understands that both are needed he can ascend to a higher level of consciousness.

The centre of the Trinity design is the climax of the design. It deals with oscillations, the rhythmic communication between two parts of the brain, again, he speaks of the feminine left (pink) and the masculine right (blue).

Knowledge of the father and mother, or masculine vs feminine, is transmitted directly through the pineal gland, which is represented in his design much like the ancient Egyptians did, the eye of Horus.

The bottom of the heart design represents music, the foundation. The diamond, or crystal, is what he calls the “electromagnet of the soul”, a mechanism that governs the individual’s ability to feel emotion and assess other’s vibrations, or rather ‘vibes’.

Vanya speaks about this climax as the end of an individual’s battle to open their hearts, find passions, and to ultimately experience personal growth.

Art of Core showcases 5 other digital designs created by Vanja, including: Theevil (Or The Dragon), Inner, Unification, Ned, and Spirit Spectre. Each design explores other aspects of human nature. For example, Theevil (or The Dragon) touches on inner turmoil and how we internalise it and project its harmful effects to those around us.

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Future Plans

While chatting with Vanja, he showed me a number of animations that plans to release in the future. He is actively working on designs and strives to make a name for himself as a multimedia artist & designer.

I found Vanja to be a deep thinking and gentle soul that is invested in growing as both an artist and an individual. He has a true passion for creating multimedia art that is both eye catching and thought provoking.

His work has been exhibited around Dublin, most notably, Grogan’s Pub. If you like what you see, you can purchase prints and merch embossed with his designs on the Art of Core website.