Nika 2022

Editor: We are looking at "Nika," a mixed-media painting by Dragan Ilić Di Vogo, created in 2022. I’m struck by how this portrait melds a realistic figure with surreal, almost dreamlike elements. What’s your initial take on it? Curator: Ah, "Nika." It's a curious piece, isn't it? I see a collision of worlds—the familiar human form juxtaposed with a cascade of symbolic detritus. A personal universe orbits her, and in a way, perhaps it *is* her. Are those stones embedded within her, or are they orbiting *around* her, do you think? It reminds me of childhood games where inanimate things gain sentience and transform into talismans of another place. Editor: I think both, really. Embedded and orbiting. There’s a vulnerability in the figure's expression, but the adornments are so assertive. There’s a kind of beautiful tension between those two things. The use of oil paint makes it looks both classical and modern. Curator: Absolutely. There's something deeply primal here too. She's a modern-day sorceress. Do you feel the pull of Expressionism there in her gaze? The artist might suggest a state of heightened emotion through not just her face but everything attached to her figure! This invites you to be aware and question what you’re really seeing and how you interpret it. The painting has that capacity to evoke something new with each encounter. Editor: It really does. I like the idea of her being a sorceress. Thinking about the artwork in that light is pretty new to me. Curator: The more you let art "speak" to you instead of trying to define its language by pure historical meaning and context, the richer and perhaps less restrictive your perception becomes. It’s liberating to connect to art on a deep, feeling level. Isn't it amazing how a single image can contain a multitude of stories? Editor: Definitely. I’ll never look at mixed media the same way again!