Artist Viktor Mitic does Mayor Rob Ford in bullet holes
By Simon Kent ,Toronto Sun
First posted: Monday, December 02, 2013 05:13 PM EST | Updated: Monday, December 02, 2013 10:46 PM EST
Look at me. All of you. Now prepare yourselves for a shock.
If the thought of seeing a bullet-ridden portrait of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford upsets you, then you’ve come to the right place.
Local artist Viktor Mitic has a show entitled, POINT BLANK — Art or War, that opens Thursday at De Luca Fine Art.
The Avenue Rd. gallery will have Rob Ford neatly outlined in gunshots on display and the bullet holes are real. Not painted on.
The mayoral visage will be portrayed alongside “Black and White Together, Forever,” a portrait of the Florida teenager Trayvon Martin and his killer George Zimmerman. There will also be versions of Jesus, the Last Supper, Brad Pitt and Willem Dafoe.
Plenty of gunshots there, as well.
Not one represents the sorts of sensitive subjects you expect to find at a run-of-the-mill, contemporary art gallery (if there is such a thing anymore).
The logic here is different. Maybe it is just a touch mercenary.
In an age where street artists like Banksy — the pseudonymous London, England-based, artist, activist, graffitist and painter — can make millions from confronting images, the Yugoslav-born Canadian Viktor Mitic wants to be part of the action, too.
He likes to shock with his shot-up works but wants to assure the public it is nothing personal. Nor is he a gun lover.
It’s all art for art’s sake.
“I have never met Rob Ford, what I have done is created a portrait using a few different methods,” Mitic said. “He is a man in the news and therefore he gets to have his image created by me.
“If people come to see my work and are shaken or taken aback or challenged, that is good ... Yes, a good thing.
“I am more dumbfounded if somebody walks in and then walks out and says nothing.”
Mitic’s unique creative process involves using firearms and hundreds of ammunition rounds fired into each painting. To Mitic, bullet holes and powder burns are metaphors for a society in crisis as it struggles with today’s gun culture.
One of the artist’s most notable works is Blasted Beaverbrook, which New Brunswick’s own Beaverbrook Art Gallery commissioned for an exhibition in 2009.
The painting features an impression of the Canadian press baron Lord Beaverbrook reposed in a red and gold leaf armchair with a beaver on the arm of the chair.
The figures stand out against the lime green background not just because of their colours but the multiple bullet holes across the canvas.
Which might sound easy to you, but listen to this.
The hardest part of creating this work is finding a gun range that will let Mitic start shooting up his subjects.
“Sometimes I get thrown out because I have to stand close to each portrait and create the bullet holes. For some reason this unsettles other people at the range.”
Can’t imagine why.
Deliberately setting out to shock an audience can be called artistic posing, but gallery owner Corrado De Luca says that this is less posing than a perfectly legitimate aim to challenge stereotypes.
“This artist has depicted many people in his unique style, from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Jesus Chris,” De Luca said. “Nobody can see his work without feeling some sort of impulse.”
His best advice is for people to go to the exhibition and make up their own minds.
Rob Ford in acrylic, gold, silver leaf and bullet holes (CNW GROUP/DE LUCA FINE ART GALLERY)
Artist Viktor Mitic does Mayor Rob Ford in bullet holes | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
First posted: Monday, December 02, 2013 05:13 PM EST | Updated: Monday, December 02, 2013 10:46 PM EST
Look at me. All of you. Now prepare yourselves for a shock.
If the thought of seeing a bullet-ridden portrait of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford upsets you, then you’ve come to the right place.
Local artist Viktor Mitic has a show entitled, POINT BLANK — Art or War, that opens Thursday at De Luca Fine Art.
The Avenue Rd. gallery will have Rob Ford neatly outlined in gunshots on display and the bullet holes are real. Not painted on.
The mayoral visage will be portrayed alongside “Black and White Together, Forever,” a portrait of the Florida teenager Trayvon Martin and his killer George Zimmerman. There will also be versions of Jesus, the Last Supper, Brad Pitt and Willem Dafoe.
Plenty of gunshots there, as well.
Not one represents the sorts of sensitive subjects you expect to find at a run-of-the-mill, contemporary art gallery (if there is such a thing anymore).
The logic here is different. Maybe it is just a touch mercenary.
In an age where street artists like Banksy — the pseudonymous London, England-based, artist, activist, graffitist and painter — can make millions from confronting images, the Yugoslav-born Canadian Viktor Mitic wants to be part of the action, too.
He likes to shock with his shot-up works but wants to assure the public it is nothing personal. Nor is he a gun lover.
It’s all art for art’s sake.
“I have never met Rob Ford, what I have done is created a portrait using a few different methods,” Mitic said. “He is a man in the news and therefore he gets to have his image created by me.
“If people come to see my work and are shaken or taken aback or challenged, that is good ... Yes, a good thing.
“I am more dumbfounded if somebody walks in and then walks out and says nothing.”
Mitic’s unique creative process involves using firearms and hundreds of ammunition rounds fired into each painting. To Mitic, bullet holes and powder burns are metaphors for a society in crisis as it struggles with today’s gun culture.
One of the artist’s most notable works is Blasted Beaverbrook, which New Brunswick’s own Beaverbrook Art Gallery commissioned for an exhibition in 2009.
The painting features an impression of the Canadian press baron Lord Beaverbrook reposed in a red and gold leaf armchair with a beaver on the arm of the chair.
The figures stand out against the lime green background not just because of their colours but the multiple bullet holes across the canvas.
Which might sound easy to you, but listen to this.
The hardest part of creating this work is finding a gun range that will let Mitic start shooting up his subjects.
“Sometimes I get thrown out because I have to stand close to each portrait and create the bullet holes. For some reason this unsettles other people at the range.”
Can’t imagine why.
Deliberately setting out to shock an audience can be called artistic posing, but gallery owner Corrado De Luca says that this is less posing than a perfectly legitimate aim to challenge stereotypes.
“This artist has depicted many people in his unique style, from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to Jesus Chris,” De Luca said. “Nobody can see his work without feeling some sort of impulse.”
His best advice is for people to go to the exhibition and make up their own minds.
Rob Ford in acrylic, gold, silver leaf and bullet holes (CNW GROUP/DE LUCA FINE ART GALLERY)
Artist Viktor Mitic does Mayor Rob Ford in bullet holes | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
