Tara Dinic
Tara Dinic was born in London and spent most of her childhood growing up between Serbia, Greece, Saudi Arabia, and the UK. She has multiple roles as a Serbian-British artist, entrepreneur, and financier, having worked in an engineering firm for four years before changing her career path.
Today as a full-time professional artist, Dinic mainly works with acrylic paint on canvas, and her artistic practice is a myriad of provocative political pieces inspired by her interaction with many rich cultures throughout her travels.
“Every one of us is an artist, we all have creativity within ourselves, and we are all intricate, imperfect works of art.”
About:
Born in 1991, Dinic spent the majority of her childhood between Athens by the sea and rainy London. Throughout her travels, she was surrounded by vibrant colours, different landscapes, and profound historical cultures and took inspiration from the land, wildlife, and indigenous cultures. She is fascinated by Ancient Greek and Byzantine mosaics, especially their attention to detail and craftsmanship.
Tara Dinic, Evergreen, 2016. Acrylic on canvas, triptych, each 90 x 30 cm.
Detail of Evergreen.
Dinic acquired a BSc in Finance and Investment Banking and an MSc in International Marketing at King’s College in London. She took courses in relation to digital marketing and consumer behaviour which aroused her interest in the art world–specifically the way that people react to artworks and the art market. In 2015, she completed a course in Art as an Investment at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, which further deepened her understanding of the global art market.
Tara Dinic, Pops of Continuity, 2017. Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 cm.
Dinic first started painting while working in the corporate world. From 2013 to 2017, she worked for a large US construction and civil engineering company at their London offices. Being trapped in a world of fixed processes and systematic procedures without the requirement of creativity, she felt that she needed to mentally escape, so she bought a canvas and paints and started painting as an outlet. One of her colleague’s friends, the owner of an art gallery, saw her work and took her on board. Hence what began as a meditative hobby turned into painting once a week and became even more frequent. Within a rather short period of time, her apartment has been filled with a considerable number of works that have received interest and queries from the market. At that point, she wanted to be a full-time professional artist.
Tara Dinic, Love is in the Air (Universal), 2017. Acrylic and aluminium on canvas, 40 x 40 cm.
Dinic’s travels have been her biggest artistic inspiration and she largely uses textured, vibrant colours in her work. Her adoption of golden colours articulates the indigenous Incan culture, as gold was very prevalent in Incan society; particularly used for jewellery, temples, and palaces. The intertwined gold within her work is not manifesting any form of monetary value but is utilised as the perspiration of the sun, symbolising the regenerative power of nature.
Tara Dinic, INTI, 2018. Acrylic and metal on canvas, 70x70cm.
Children of War from Dinic’s Hearts series is particularly close to the artist’s own heart, as she spent most of her childhood in Greece and ex-Yugoslavia where she witnessed the heartbreaking consequences caused by the war. She translated this into thousands of red hearts, each representing one homeless refugee child.
Tara Dinic, Children of War, 2016. Acrylic on canvas, 25 canvases hung on barbed wire fencing, each canvas 15 x 15 cm.
Detail of Children of War.
Dinic’s most recent works are for a show at 12 Hay Hill in Mayfair, London, which is on view until May 2022. After being asked by several clients whether she had glued Skittles onto her work as it is three-dimensional, she only found it appropriate to call her art show Taste the Rainbow–a nod to Skittles’ slogan.
Tara Dinic, Taste the Rainbow, 2018. Acrylic on canvas, 25 x 25 cm.
Selected Exhibitions
2022 12 Hay Hill, London, UK.
2019 Sister Gallery, London, UK.
2018 Blender Gallery, Athens, Greece.
2018 Iris Gallery, Athens, Greece.
2018 Contemporary Art Fair, Surrey, UK.
Danni Han
Emerging Artists Co-Editor, MADE IN BED