Kelava Vitomir – Yellow Trace

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, and graduated in painting in the class of Prof. Stojan Ćelić in 1983. He is a member of HDLU Rijeka and HDLU 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, a distinct postmodern climate of the early 1980s is clearly evident, in personal explorations focused on old painting poetics. This is followed by a metaphysical period, then a cycle on the theme of Bosnian stećci where his own visual expression is reduced to an “iconic sign.” At the beginning of the 1990s, he aligns with the poetics of expressionism. In the latest period of his painting, a radical turn occurs – he is attracted to archaic “pre-cosmogonic” syncretism. At the turn of the millennium, he begins a new cycle with small-format paintings of objects, made from 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 last cycle “Zone of Silence” includes painting-objects – stone applied on laminated canvas, i.e., on a painted background that highlights the individuality of the stone.