A leading contemporary artist, Marc Sijan is extremely popular for his hyper realistic life-like sculptures that reflect his fascination to explore and replicate human form While sensual and delicate, it is the human elements like their veins, scars, pores on the skin, and distinctly shaped faces that make them so captivating At the same time, with their varied physical appearance ranging from old, young, scrawny, or burly, Sijan’s sculptures encompass a whole gamut of human anatomic representation

A consummate observer of life, the artist often renders his creations based on individuals who remain unacknowledged by society as his subjects, especially blue-collared workers His sculptures also capture their daily toil as they always appear on the verge of motion and a split second away from ensuing action A Milwaukee-based artist, Sijan was born in Serbia in 1946 He commenced his art education with a Bachelor's Degree in 1968 from the University of Wisconsin He then pursued a Master of Science in Arts degree, which imparted an intense understanding of biology and human anatomy While the artist has adopted a modernist approach towards his practice, his works are rooted in the tradition of figurative sculpture, such as Michelangelo’s David and Venus de Milo While always fascinated and inspired by Michelangelo’s mastery over human anatomy, Sijan in his work does not seek to idealise the form

His distinct creative process begins with a live model to construct a plaster cast In order to achieve accuracy in every detail, he then works on the interiors of the mould before casting the figure in a polyester resin The realism in flesh tones and textures of his sculptures is acquired through the months-long process of applying varnish and several layers of oil paint, which sometimes exceeds as many as twenty-five coats "The goal is to achieve depth, yet translucency It can't be flat The chest and throat texture is different from that of the arms