At a time when presentation of art in an actual physical space feels like a luxury, seeing an artist "bastardize" such an opportunity almost feels like blasphemy. But we're not surprised to see none else but the mischievous Maja Djordjevic, featured in our Spring 2020 issue, doing exactly that! Her solo debut with Carl Kostyál in London, This Must Be the Place, is on view through January 2021 as a kind of ironic monument to the past year and the time spent indoors alone in our respective bubbles.
Clever that Djordjevic chose a different route in use of the gallery's wood-paneled venue. Rather than hanging her digitally-native aesthetic and hyper-bright, glossy color against the walls, she utilized her paintings as architectural elements. Employing her practice as a wink at the recent global popularity of home improvement, her canvases transformed into a tableau of table chair or insinuated into classic, ornate frames. Borrowing a Talking Heads title, the Belgrade-born and London-based artist turned the gallery venue into an eclectic, eccentric domestic living space, fronted by a large, bright red mural. the entire presentation evokes the feeling of borderline insanity that most of us got
The paintings star Djordjevic's pixelated nude muse, mouth wide open and eyes literally popping, flirting with ecstasy and misery as she luxuriates in the surreal outdoors while pretty much losing her mind indoors. Seagull slides, drifting on the Aegean Sea and dallying with daisies, the artist, like David Byrne says “I’m just an animal looking for a home.” —Sasha Bogojev