Olga Djordjević Milenković

Olga Djorđević (born 1985) graduated from and completed her specialization at the Faculty of Arts in Niš in 2010. To date, she has presented her work in nineteen solo exhibitions, as well as in a large number of group exhibitions and art colonies in Serbia and abroad. She has received several awards for her work, among which are the First Prize for Drawing in 2001 in Takasaki, Japan, at the XI International Competition of Art Colleges, and a Purchase Award for Miniature in 2012 from the Museum of Northern History, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada. She has been a member of ULUS (The Association of Fine Artists of Serbia) since 2012.

The latest cycle of works by Olga Đorđević develops as a continuation of the artist’s research begun in her previous painting cycles entitled Metamorphosis of the City. Abstracted landscapes with pronounced textural qualities emerged through a process of reducing real scenes and transforming them into imaginary and poetic spaces. Regardless of the subject matter that lies at the center of her current interests, Olga’s artistic handwriting sensitively and vibrantly shapes the motif, without resorting to direct mimesis. Like a seismograph, it focuses exclusively on tracing rhythms and sonic extensions. If a factual detail appears here and there, it acquires the function of an accentual marker, equivalent to a sharp in a tonal system.

The direct visual application of her painterly script is based on a system of surfaces and their coloristic relationships. The tangible vitality of these surfaces is owed to the glimpses of the underlying painted layer and to a network of fine brushstrokes applied with the tips of the brushes, most often noticeable in a contrasting color. The richness of layers is skillfully realized in conjunction with glazed surfaces, so that not only is the corporeality of the motif felt, but air itself seems to flow through the painting. It becomes clear that the compositional structure of these works essentially derives from the landscape motif.

By the nature of her personal artistic constitution, Olga is a pronounced colorist. Her palette is very rich, even lavish. She uses this coloristic fireworks wisely, avoiding raw, drastic contrasts of opposites, instead relying on a system of values, or very carefully softening the dominant tone. In this way, her coloristic richness acquires a noble resonance and affirms the presence of an overall harmony.