Godina 2011

Dragan Ilić Di Vogo made this painting, Godina, at some point—the date is unknown. It looks like a dream, or a vision, emerging slowly—maybe he started with the figure, a woman, and then built up everything around her, like a personal cosmos. The surface is so smooth it looks almost surreal, like a glossy magazine cover. The little candies or planets that orbit the woman’s body might be pure decoration, but it’s like Di Vogo is saying, "What if we could decorate the body, make it even more beautiful than it already is?" The light, too, is so even, that it almost feels unreal, like it's lit from the inside. You can imagine Di Vogo layering thin glazes of paint, over and over, trying to get that perfect luminosity. I can imagine him standing back, squinting, adding a little more here, taking away a little there. And you know, this constant back and forth, this conversation with the painting, is what makes it so alive. It becomes a record of a thought process, of somebody trying to work something out, a conversation with the painting itself.