Vitomir Kelava – Holy Family (after Raphael)

He was born in Zenica in 1952, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He studied law at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, then enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, graduating in painting under prof. Stojan Ćelić’s class in 1983. He is a member of the HDLU of Rijeka and HDLU of Zagreb. He rarely exhibits solo. He lives on the island of Rab, in Rab, where he owns his own studio-gallery in which he creates and presents his work.

In the early post-academic years, the distinctive postmodern climate of the early 1980s is clearly evident in his personal explorations focused on traditional painting poetics. This is followed by a metaphysical period, then a cycle with the theme of Bosnian stećak tombstones where he reduces his visual expression to an “iconic sign.” At the beginning of the 1990s, he adopts the expressionist poetics. In the latest period of his painting, a radical shift occurs – he is attracted to archaic “pre-cosmogonic” syncretism. At the millennium transition, he begins a new cycle with small format paintings made from two parts. In his work, he uses oil paint and non-painting materials – twine, pieces of fabric, and sand. This is the “Untitled” cycle. He also paints female nudes using the aforementioned materials. The last cycle, “Zone of Silence,” includes painting-objects – stone applied onto laminated canvas, i.e., onto a colored base that emphasizes the individuality of the stone.