Milena Dragicevic

Born 1965 in Knin, Serbia
Lives and works in London, United Kingdom

Milena Dragicevic’s painting series Erections for Transatlantica oscillates between figurative and abstract, refusing to settle for a clear defined identity. Transatlantica alludes to a fictional place of origin or an in-between place which also marks the artist’s own story, having grown up in Canada as a Serbian immigrant and now living in Great Britain. “Due to my nomadic existence this suspended space is a place I have come to inhabit on a regular basis. It is a space that holds both a utopian promise as well as the fear of an impending abyss.” (Dragicevic)

Just like her amalgamation of identity and community, an array of intersecting personal references transfer context and composition to her paintings. The form of her work uses a code of abstraction whilst keeping one foot in reality. Gathered imagery, painterly processed, dissected and abstracted, produce object-like forms and swaying outlines. They emerge to distinguish structure within the continuous space of the canvas, then almost dissolve again into the background, a relationship of tension and potential is built.