Mala-Dunja 2013

This is Dragan Ilić Di Vogo’s painting, Mala-Dunja, and it’s hard to know exactly when it was made, since the artist has the same birth and death date. Spooky! Anyway, the surface is so smooth, it’s almost like looking at a photograph. But it’s a painting, and that means that every single detail has been considered, labored over. The deep, saturated red in the upper part of the work creates a sort of halo effect behind the horse. Then you get these little bits of color in the form of floating gumdrops which feel surreal, almost like a dream. But what I keep coming back to is the horse’s mane, the way that it becomes the girl’s hair, it’s all part of the same. There’s a connection between them, and the dreamlike quality of the whole piece. It reminds me of Paula Rego, with her dark, psychological fairy tales. It's really captivating, the way the image lingers in your mind.