Jan J. Beran, the featured artist at Galeria Jan, 1250 Prospect St., likes to paint women — primarily with oil on wood — but not just any woman. Beran is after an illusive emanating Mona Lisa-like image of a woman who embodies the essence of the goddess, or the female deity — a Madre Deus who watches over man and is in no little pain seeing what mankind is doing to himself. Beran’s female image has its roots in the religious icons of the Orthodox Christian Church, especially images of Mary, which Beran grew up with in the Balkans. Beran’s paintings of women are deep, dark, rich and beautiful. They are the product of a cameraman’s eye for visual beauty, but a cameraman who has filmed wars in Lebanon, Israel and the Balkans. Likewise, the eyes of Beran’s women are particularly poignant. They seduce you. They beguile you and they haunt you. They look at you asking: “Who you are?” “What you are doing?” “What kind of a world are you creating for my children?” This is the timeless symbolic role of woman as evaluator — as the mother, the cheerleader, the wife and the nun. At the most primitive level, a child only knows itself through the image it sees of itself in the mirror of its mother’s eye. In the West, it is popular to speak of woman as the object of man’s “gaze.” Men find visual pleasure in examining the beautiful but passive woman as an object. But Beran has reversed this dynamic in a move of de-familiarization, making the active man the object of the passive woman’s gaze. But the woman’s gaze is not toward physical beauty, but toward moral character. Beran was born in 1954 in Sarajevo, Bosnia to an artistic family. His father was a TV cameraman and a director, his mother a sculptor. At an early age, Beran gained notice from the school fathers and from his mother for a life-size sculpture he made from mud in the children’s school yard. Having recognized his artistic abilities, his mother gave him complete freedom to remodel their house, which he did with a fervor. Eventually, Beran earned a BA in TV journalism from Sarajevo University. In the process, he spent considerable time mingling with intellectuals and artists who frequented the old part of Sarajevo. Currently, Beran works as a special effects cameraman for Camera Control, Inc. in Santa Monica and Crystal Pyramid Productions in San Diego. He has worked on the movies “Avatar,” “Spiderman,” “Matrix,” and “The Aviator” (for which his company won an Oscar for Best Special Effects). Beran likes to paint to express himself and to relax. When he is painting, he often listens to rock ‘n’ roll music, such as The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin. Many of his paintings, such as “Crosstown Traffic” and “Communication Breakdown,” are named after famous rock songs. Beran said he is very proud that he recently sold two of his paintings to the prestigious Dubi Shiff Art Gallery in Tel Aviv, Israel, and this is a major recognition of his artistic stature. Beran’s message to the people of La Jolla is, “Express yourself! Art is a fantastic way to express your thoughts and feelings.” Beran’s wife, Biljana, who runs Galeria Jan, was trained to be a medical doctor. She has been with Beran for the past 29 years, supporting and encouraging his artistic pursuits. She even makes his frames which are very fine, varnished in deep brown colors and artistic in their own right. The couple originally met at the 14th Olympic Games in Sarajevo in 1981, where Beran was filming for television. “All of Jan’s paintings have a story. Every painting in the gallery is a book of mystery that one reads again and again,” Biljana. For more information visit galeriajan.com or call (858) 551-2053.
