Pluton – Pluto 2013

Dragan Ilić Di Vogo has made a painting of a horse, using thin layers of paint to create a dreamlike image, almost like a memory of a horse. I think of Vogo in the studio, brush in hand, layering colors, pulling them back, maybe adding some water, then letting the image emerge from the painting’s ground. It feels like he is coaxing the form into being rather than trying to dictate its existence. There’s a kind of muted but intense colour palette. I love the way the gray of the horse contrasts with the warm browns and yellows of the background, but then there are these orbs of colour and floating stones, like planets in space, that disrupt the supposed realism. What do they mean? It's the strangeness of the image that I find compelling. It’s as if Vogo wants to conjure a feeling of mystery and make us question what we think we know about seeing.