Vitomir Kelava – Nude

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 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 postmodernist climate of the early eighties is clearly discernible in his personal research focused on old pictorial poetics. This is followed by a metaphysical period, then a cycle with the theme of Bosnian stećak tombstones where he reduces his own visual expression to an “iconic sign.” At the beginning of the nineties, he aligns with the poetics of expressionism. In the latest period, a radical turn occurs in his painting—he is drawn to archaic “pre-cosmogonic” syncretism. At the millennium transition, 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 cycle “Untitled.” He also paints female nudes where he uses the same materials mentioned. The last cycle “Zone of Silence” includes painting-objects—stone applied to mounted canvas, i.e., on a colored background that emphasizes the individuality of the stone.