ARTISAN
works

Viktor Mitic , University of Toronto graduate artist, classically trained in art schools in Europe, Mitic has produced a major body of work that spans a career of over two decades. For a number of years, he was painting non-representational paintings using natural elements such as rain and hail to render surfaces of the paintings in oils on canvas. Mitic has successfully integrated various materials into his recent body of work: charcoal, graphite, oil, acrylic, watercolour, pen and ink, and japanese traditional natural pigment.

He has recently developed a distinctive, some would say provocative, method; he paints portraits of international iconic images and later shoots the outline of the figures using various weapons and live ammunition. Moved by  the destruction of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan – ancient artwork created in the 6th century – Mitic makes a bold statement and uses a symbol of 21st century – a gun-  as a method of creation.  Using both celebrities and religious figures, such as Marilyn Monroe, Jesus and John F. Kennedy, he painted portraits onto canvas and then used more than one million rounds of ammunition and various guns to outline them.  The project culminated in a show, documentary film and a book titled  ‘Art or War’.

Mitic’s most recent series entitled ‘Rain ’ creates an interesting partnership between our environment and art. The entire series was painted outdoors with oil paint, pigment and acid rain.  The mixture of natural elements and paint create a truly unique series that showcases the beauty of nature’s contribution to the world of art and enables an unusual physical interaction between the two. 

Rain  series, first exhibited at a prominent Muramatsu Gallery in Tokyo, Japan in 2008. In 2011 , Mitic debuted a  paintings from the series, titled  ‘Galaxy’ at The Koerner Hall  in Toronto for a charity gala.  The completed series titled “ Rain Dance “ was exhibited in the fourth quarter of 2011 and it coincided with the launch of a book and a documentary dvd of the same title