Sve sto mozes 2011

Curator: Welcome! Here we have "Sve sto mozes" painted in 2011 by Dragan Ilić Di Vogo. This surrealist acrylic on canvas certainly packs a punch. Editor: It feels almost overwhelming, a swirling chaos. The eye jumps around trying to find some stable ground, between the figure, the sculptural fragment, and this mountainous backdrop of color and indeterminate form. What does it all mean? Curator: I see a lot of Jungian archetypes at play here. The nude female form reaching upwards suggests aspiration, almost an Eve-like figure striving towards enlightenment. The classical bust, possibly a representation of reason or the conscious self, seems weighed down, trapped. Editor: I’m struck by the physicality of it all. The visible layering of the acrylics gives it this tactile quality, a kind of built-up surface. And the contrasting textures, like the smoothness of the figure against the rough impasto of the backdrop – it all feels deliberate. Do we know anything about Di Vogo's painting methods? Curator: The artist embraces "matter-painting", a technique emphasizing the physicality of the paint itself. This is where the paint becomes more than just color, it gains a three-dimensional presence. The artist encourages you to dive deeper into the painting through material presence. Editor: That makes perfect sense! It's less about illusion and more about… revealing the labour. Each daub and swirl feels like a conscious decision. This work embraces chance while making you hyper aware of process and method. It blurs the lines between painting and object-making. Curator: It's intriguing how these symbols – the classical bust, the nude – are almost deconstructed within this material landscape. What's especially fascinating is the visual metaphor: that the possibility of change comes from dismantling and deconstructing set models. The image suggests freedom of self that exceeds conventional limitations. Editor: Exactly! And it invites us to reconsider not just *what* is depicted, but *how* it’s depicted. How much of this meaning is built in with the paint itself? That’s why I keep returning to that layered effect of the paint, the conscious use of it, because, clearly, the artist’s hand is *all over* the surface. Curator: It's a fascinating intersection of the symbolic and the material, I agree. Editor: A collision of the two, actually! A fantastic place for art to be.