Kelava Vitomir – Memory

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 in the class of Prof. Stojan Ćelić in 1983. He is a member of HDLU Rijeka and HDLU Zagreb. He rarely holds solo exhibitions. He lives on the island of Rab, in Rab, where he owns his own atelier-gallery in which he creates and presents his work.

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