Tina Dobrajc

The Balkan Saga II

2017, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 150 cm

Tina Dobrajc creates a figurative world with female figures defined by national and folkloristic symbols pertaining to Slovene (or Slavic) Heimat Kunst and/or mythology: women wearing the avba (the Gorenjska national costume headdress) and situated in Alpine scenes as representative landscapes of national identification. These figures are placed in suggestive, ominous compositions with symbolic animals (wolves and bears) that evoke the aesthetic of thrillers with their uneasy air. But while the paintings look like staged scenes, their narration often seems suspended and anything but univocal; left open to interpretation, they inevitably also suggest a condemnation of nationalism and of the unthinking acceptance of local traditions as signs of a narrow-minded, hostile, intolerant social reality.

Tina Dobrajc (born 1984, Kranj, Slovenia) graduated from Master programme (MFA) of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2011. In 2007 she Graduated from painting (BFA) at the Academy of fine arts and design Ljubljana, Slovenia. Currently living and working in Škofja Loka, Slovenia. Web: http://www.tinadobrajc.com/