Arlene Nedeljkovic

South Africa-born Australian painter Arlene Nedeljkovic explores themes of duality and productive tension in canvases featuring energetic drip patterns against abstract compositions, initially evoking an imaginary Pollock-Rothko collaboration. These divergent techniques often adopt a figure-background relationship, with trickled colors playing across more muted patterns. Frequently, however, a synergy develops between these initially autonomous elements. Movements explicitly documented in the paint drops appear implicitly in the surrounding forms. Nedeljkovic invites this dialogue, rubbing dribbled patterns and using various treatments to blur distinctions between her two predominant modes of application.
 
The effect is of breaking down oppositions between different modes of understanding lived experience. Nedeljkovic's paintings explore recent concepts such as string theory – which her linear forms echo visually – positing multiple and interwoven realities. Where her chaotic patterns of dripped paint suggest one way of seeing, the full backdrops offer another complimentary approach. By engaging such conceptual frameworks for structuring the shape and content of our world, Nedeljkovic develops her own hybridic form.

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