Vitomir Kelava – Nude I

He was born in Zenica in 1952, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He studied law at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, then enrolled in 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 the HDLU of Rijeka and the 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, there is a clearly discernible pronounced postmodern climate of the early eighties in his personal research, directed towards old painting poetics. This is followed by a metaphysical period, then a cycle with the theme of Bosnian stećci (medieval tombstones), where he reduces his artistic 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 attracted to archaic “pre-cosmogonic” syncretism. At the turn of the millennium, he begins a new cycle with paintings-objects, small in format, made in 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 also paints female nudes using the same materials mentioned. The last cycle, “Zone of Silence,” includes paintings-objects – stone applied to a laminated canvas, i.e., to a painted base that highlights the individuality of the stone.