One of the most promising students of the elite Faculty of Fine Art in Belgrade (Serbia & Montenegro), which accepts only 26 students per year, Dusan Ristic entered the Faculty in 1993 after 7 years of private training, mostly experimenting with objects, photography, installations and landscape art. Coincidentally, the war in Serbia and Montenegro (former Yugoslavia) had begun in 1992. After some productive years, as the war went on, Dusan could no longer see any purpose in working on art during the war. Consequently, in 1997 he stopped studying or producing any art for a period that became 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 Romani (Gypsy) 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 Art 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 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 named "Genetic Code