Beogradjanka 2013

Dragan Ilić Di Vogo painted 'Beogradjanka' using oil, building up the scene with thin layers of paint. Imagine him coaxing this vision into existence. There are two figures here, a young woman and a weathered statue, set against a sky that merges grey and pink. It’s dreamlike. I like how Di Vogo has placed the woman in front of the statue. It makes me think of the old and the new, maybe the artist wanted to capture the feeling of a place suspended between eras? The figure is so solid, but fragmented at the same time; the chipped and broken surface of the statue reminds me of the body. The addition of the little coloured dabs scattered across the woman’s chest feel symbolic, as if painting has given the artist freedom to explore the human body. Artists are magpies, we see something we like and steal it for later. So much of painting is this exchange, across time, across geography, and between each other. It's an honor.