Frieze Week in LA was full of some incredible openings and shows, as the city embraced the fair programs around town with a great series of openings, one highlight being the US solo debut of Maja Djordjevic, in a show organized by Balkan Projects, a new initiative by Serbian actress and entrepreneur, Marija Karan. Aiming to actively engage the Balkan art scene in a larger international context, Maja’s presented Deal Again, in a pop-up location in Culver City.
A representative “millennial” the Belgrade-born artist thrives in her generation's facility and felicity with computer technology. Her unique works reflect days and nights spent playing Sega, Space Invaders, arcade games, and particularly Microsoft Paint software, experimenting with the once breakthrough software created a strong connection with a crude, highly pixelated imagery, emerged as a channel linking to the emotional state of a teenager exploring life and the social norms while naughty pictures that could be erased with one click.
Rather than trying to recreate the sharpness and precision of digital displays with modern materials or technology, Djordjevic uses traditional tools such as brush and thick layers of vinyl paint to render gleefully flamboyant and vibrant images. A slippery surface glides through her paintings, sculptures and installations in digital and analog harmony. As a saucy female character engages amid utterly surreal scenarios.
As the first artist invited to Los Angeles for the Balkan Projects’ residency, Djordjevic’s new work embodies a strong connection between past and present. Painting from memory for the first time, without the use of Microsoft Paint software, the new images eclipse the restrictions of the computer interface, elevating her exuberance to a wider vista. Many of the works in the show were built around another favorite childhood pastime and analog computer game: Solitaire.
Borrowing Solitaire’s Deal Again command for the title of the show, Djordjevic has designed an enthralling installation that places new paintings inside the eclectic interface of this iconic computer game. Bringing back the excitement of cards being shuffled and dealt through an absurd digital fountain, the installation blends the magic and nonsense of Alice in Wonderland within familiar digital interface, while connecting the childhood innocence, curiosity, and emotion with the artist’s evolving creative drive. —Sasha Bogojev
Maja Djordjevic will be featured in our upcoming Spring 2020 print edition.
