POINT BLANK - The Art or War by Viktor Mitic December 5 - December 28, 2013 Opening reception: Thursday December 5th, 6 - 9 pm De luca fine art is pleased to present the exhibition Point Blank - The Art of War by Viktor Mitic. The work by Mitic challenges our assumptions of what role an artist should play. Not only are these bullet riddled paintings hanging in the proverbial balance between beauty and violence, but they do so with a sense of how art is perceived in today’s world. And so: There are two influences working simultaneously in Viktor Mitic’s art. One is the media, and the way the media causes us to perceive any numbers of things, whether art or violence, in a way that is at odds with reality. And so violence generates a culture of fear, but the media generates a culture of impalpable neurosis, distances all of us from the root causes of violence. And the media likewise distances us from the sources of culture. begin to sense the media itself generates a disconnect that contributes to a culture of violence. The second influence we see in Viktor Mitic’s art is the interplay between aesthetics and society. The social contexts that surround artistic practice are largely ignored, distanced by aesthetics. The art we see in a museum context becomes a panacea rather than an expression of the experiences we live. The message is how can a society appreciate beauty when it is immersed in consumption? We feel this distancing in (Couple-Orange Umbrella). Here, what looks like a classic Japanese painting or woodcut image, has a tranquility and resolution that is ultimately serene, and composed. Onto this, Mitic superimposes a line drawing using bullets that embellishes the image. The bullets in Viktor Mitic’s art are a metaphor for the crisis in our society based on dis-investment in government, in an ethics of society and a basic social contract – what binds all meaningful and productive societies together. Bullets tear into the art point blank. There is a similar palpable tension in Japanese Lady in Red with Cat induced by the bullet holes and ultimately beautiful artwork. The distance we feel is between good and evil, not in reality, but in the way we interpret it all. Mitic’s re-interpretation of Hokusai’s Great Wave is evocative at the same time as it is a call to wake up out of this classic view of art in an era when all cultural sources are being uprooted, challenged and disarranged by global forces seemingly beyond our control. So we have this beautiful, joyful image of the Great Wave riddled with bullets like a constellation. Violence tears into our social fabric point blank. Buddha and Jesus Christ, with all the religious portent their images signify, are brought into this context of potentially violent interpretation. But for Mitic the message is not about violence per se. Mitic challenges the way violence is presented to a public and the way the media presents it changes society itself. No painting in this show realizes this conflict of interpretation better than Black and White Together, Forever that portrays the black youth Trayvor Martin and his assailant George Zimmerman. Victim and killer, brought together by the media attention surrounded the fatal killing, so far from any inner or personal world that may have existed before the hype for both of these individuals. Viktor Mitic’s art challenges us to engage in a new dialogue on the pervasive use and availability of guns in North America. A culture of fear generates gun culture, as much as the guns themselves. Bullets tear into the art point blank. - John K. Grande For further information, please contact: Corrado De Luca corrado@delucafineart T: (1) 416-537-4699 de luca fine art | gallery 217 Avenue Road, Toronto [map] Wed - Sat. 12 - 6 pm or by appointment delucafineart Bullet hole encrusted skull (2009), acrylic on canvas with bullet holes, 42 x 34 inches
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 05:47:25 +0000
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