Utorak 2022

Curator: Dragan Ilić Di Vogo's "Utorak," created in 2022 using acrylic paint, immediately strikes me as something out of a dream. Editor: Yes, a dream, or perhaps a very particular kind of fragmented cultural memory. Note the equine subject, realistically rendered but adorned with stripes like those of a jockey's silks, combined with surreal, floating elements that appear almost cellular, or perhaps planetary. Curator: Indeed, the composition adheres to a relatively strict verticality, grounding the otherwise disparate elements. The brushwork, however, is where things get interesting. See how the paint seems to both coalesce into form, specifically the horse, and simultaneously dissolve back into the ground. Editor: Horses are so freighted with symbolic value. Think of them: in classical antiquity they are a symbol of power, virility, and are connected to the solar chariot; in many indigenous cultures they stand for freedom. And then this is deliberately disrupted by those stripes. Is it referencing harness racing? Perhaps disrupting traditional iconography. Curator: Disrupting or layering. The artist employs a kind of visual palimpsest, allowing various representational systems to interact and overlay one another. The planetary or cellular forms also seem to hover somewhat outside of the picture plane, flattening the whole space. Editor: And yet they feel deeply organic and psychological. These cellular, or perhaps cosmological, forms suggest a primal landscape – perhaps, the very beginning of life itself. It is interesting the artist placed this composition around the figure of a horse as that creature is traditionally tied to our earliest development. The more I study it, the more it seems to invoke not just memory, but primal awareness itself. Curator: Ultimately, "Utorak" proposes an interesting tension between illusionistic depth and surface play. The success of the painting relies upon this formal dialectic. Editor: Yes, an enigmatic blend of power and fragility. It certainly invites contemplation.