Wide Awake 2017

Dragan Ilić Di Vogo made this painting, Wide Awake, and its colours are a bit like the sky just before a storm, all reds and purples, which helps make this woman at the center pop out. The painting is super smooth, almost like glass in some places, but then you see these splatters and drips of paint, like the artist just let loose. I find myself focusing on her face and on the way her gaze holds you, but then there is all this other stuff going on, like a surreal dreamscape. The bits and pieces scattered around her, the checkered cubes, the floating planets, it's all like a peek into a mind that’s wide awake, as the title suggests. I can imagine this piece hanging next to something by Remedios Varo, both artists playing with that line between reality and something much stranger. It’s a reminder that art isn't about answers; it’s about the questions we ask and the worlds we imagine.