For her first exhibition, Maja Djordjevic followed a group of strangers on an island and painted their adventures on canvas, combining a form of voyeurism and portraiture, elements that will remain very present in her work until today. Undoubtedly inspired by the very first digital art tools available to the public such as Microsoft Paint, the artist explores the transposition of these simplistic works onto large canvases.
She uses acrylic paint and enamel in successive layers to paint her pixelated works, freehand, without the aid of any precision technique other than the confidence of her stroke. Mixing the styles of both faux-naïve and net-art – simplistic, almost childlike works for the former, and internet-inspired art of the 1990s and 2000s for the latter – Djordjevic offers us a total parody of the art world. Her characters could represent our virtual avatars who explore, without any protection or idea of direction, the depths of the infinitely mysterious ocean that is the Internet. The settings are colorful and absurd. The avatars seem to scream their happiness and ecstasy, but the whole thing sounds false and disturbing.
Everything can exist in the virtual world, but is it for the better, or for the worse?
