Magdalena Modrić

Art Brokerage: Magdalena Modrić Crotian Artist: She often makes functional objects: pipes and pens and knives, hairpins and necklaces and weapons. There is a sense about these utilitarian items that her art does not work down from idea to matter, but rather reflects the primal human impulse to decorate and beautify necessary implements. She also makes "pure art" – pictures and sculptures. She produces vivid animal and plant studies and eccentric master copies. She has a medieval sensibility. She repeatedly makes or draws crowns and swords. Her characters are kings and witches and sea monsters. At other times, she turns to the classical world for her warrior heroes and heroines. Her figures are stereotypes, not individuals: furrow-browed mustachioed men with little heads and barrel chests, serene women with little Michelangelo breasts and big hips. Narrative spins effortlessly from her work. She draws deeply and with equal sincerity on the three roots of Europe: the Greco-Roman heritage, Christianity, and the magic-tinged paganism of the Slavic and Germanic tribes. She works in ink, metal, paint, 3D modeling software, and above all, clay. She is a queen of clay. I know of nobody to whom clay more completely reveals its protean quality. For her, it can and does turn into anything. It contains multitudes of images desperate to become manifest. Modrić opens the gate to her clay, and it blossoms into a cosmic menagerie. Listings wanted.