Vice Tomasović

HORROR VACUI – EX NIHILO

19.5. – 5.6.2016.

Exhibition opening: 19.5.2016. at 7pm

Fear of empty spaces is a characteristics of Romanesque painting where, due to the fear of empty spaces, the background, canvas, page of a book or wall surface were filled with the anthology of plant and animal ornaments which ruled out any possibility of three-dimensionality and reduced it to overlapping surfaces. The surface the artist worked on was supposed to be filled from edge to edge and avoid any illusion of three-dimensional representation, thus imposing the theme as the most important feature of the work. And how does “horror vacui“ look like in contemporary painting? By filling the space of the painting, Vice Tomasović creates a unique visual world. More precisely, the painting after which the exhibition was named “Ex Nihilo I / Out of Nothing I“ is a fantasy composed of thousands of small fish, sea creatures, octopuses, and then snails, turtles and insects, and finally strange anthropomorphic creatures, meticulously and patiently drawn with acrylic paint, whereas underneath it all there seems to exist a herbal branched shape which forms a deeper composition. A witty imagery of tiny creatures on a large format points to the process of eternal cyclic recreation of nature, and cosmogonic connotations evoke the title “Out of Nothing“[1]. The viewer drowns in his paintings. It is therefore truly necessary to view his paintings in the original, because reproductions, regardless of their format, do not have this quality of drawing the viewer in. It is impossible to perceive them from a distance and it is impossible to focus only on a detail. By creating a unique visual vocabulary, Tomasović creates phantasmagorical worlds which he claims to be the real representations of world’s history and future. He creates fables with mystical messages. Given all this number of real and fictional characters, plant and animal forms, in an atmosphere that both suffocates and overwhelms, the viewer is forced to interpret on their own, but also to create, links between those painted creatures of some new mythology. “Ex Nihilo II“ again uses this exuberance of life of anthropomorphic creatures trapped in a school of fish, which the artist uses to successfully focus the viewers attention on the activity in the centre of the canvas, on a sort of dance of those unusual creatures that celebrate the creation of life. From a pale grey background he creates the movement of his characters to present the creation of life. In his works, medieval “horror vacui“ blends with surreal visions and half-crazy version of symbolism previously achieved in his works from 2013, creating thus a painterly language of some new mythology.

Morana Matković

Vice Tomasović

After graduating from a general grammar school in Omiš, he enrolled into the Academy of Arts in Split, Department of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 2009. He is the founder and director of Amissa Open Air Festival of Contemporary Art in Omiš, as well as the president of the Croatian Association of Artists in Split and the head of exhibitions at the Galić Salon in Split. Vice Tomasović has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions, art festivals and manifestations, as an organizer, curator, artist and performer. He has won several awards for his work.

The exhibition is financially supported by the City Office for Culture, Education and Sports Zagreb.

WORKING HOURS
Wednesday to Friday 11am – 7pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am – 6pm
Mondays and holidays – closed
Dom hrvatskih likovnih umjetnika
Trg žrtava fašizma 16
10000 Zagreb