Dusan Ristic commenced his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1993, after seven years of private training, during which he mostly experimented with objects, photography, installations and landscape art. The war in Serbia and Montenegro (the former Yugoslavia) had begun in 1992. After a few productive years, Dusan could no longer see any point in working on art during the war. Consequently, in 1997 he stopped studying or producing any art for what was to be seven years. He left Serbia for Budapest, Hungary, where he got involved in the Romani movement and human rights work. The only exception to this break in his artistic work was the installation I Simply Cannot Understand (Budapest, 2000), inspired by, and dedicated to, Anastazia Balasova, a Roma woman who was murdered in her own home by racists.

During this time, and especially after the end of the war in 2001, Dusan’s supervising professor constantly encouraged Dusan to return to the Belgrade Faculty of Fine Arts to finish his studies. Dusan took up painting again in early 2004, completed his degree a few months later, and moved to California, where he began a new life and a new art.

Recently, Dusan returned to his artistic roots, working in traditional media (oil on canvas).
Inspired by California’s sun, light and horizon, he created a new series, called Genetic Code.

Suzanne Leonora