Opening Reception: Saturday, July 6, 2024 at 1:00 p.m.
Cartoon pop art blends the bold, colorful aesthetics of pop art with the playful, exaggerated styles of comic books and animated cartoons, creating a visually striking and often humorous effect. This genre often features iconic characters and imagery from popular culture, reimagined in a way that both celebrates and critiques mass media and consumerism.
Viktor Mitic uses a range of techniques, media, and references to create hallucinatory worlds filled with cartoon characters, and bright, often-anthropomorphic blobs. His works radiate dynamic and joyous bursts of color, form, and energy, but these saturated, seemingly playful shapes often conceal a darker edge, reflecting the dual nature of modern society. Mitic’s paintings are always reflective of his unique, self-generated visual universe, drawing from ideas and experiences extracted from the surrounding world. He successfully merges fine art with popular culture, drawing on the traditions of Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, comic books, and street art.
Mitic, is an artist whose work is a kaleidoscopic blend of cartoon aesthetics and pop culture. His unique style is characterized by playful depictions of animated characters, extraterrestrial beings, and surreal landscapes. In his large-scale paintings, filled with vibrant colors and intricate details, infuse urban landscapes with a sense of wonder and imagination. Mitic’s cartoon pop art transports viewers to alternate dimensions where pop culture and the cosmos collide, encouraging exploration of the boundaries of imagination.
Viktor Mitic is able to merge the whimsical and the profound, inviting viewers to experience a sense of childlike wonder while contemplating the mysteries of the universe. His work serves as a reminder that even in the vastness of space, there is room for the familiar comfort of cartoon pop art and the limitless possibilities of artistic creativity.
In contrast to the cartoon pop art paintings, Mitic is on point with his sculptural work. Featuring shapes inspired by paint spills on his studio floor, transforming accidental forms into deliberate and captivating structures. He skillfully stacks these blob-like shapes into dynamic compositions that reflect his unique artistic vision and process-driven approach to sculpture. The multi-dimensional compositions also challenge the viewer’s perceptions of space and form.
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Canadian artist Viktor Mitic, originally from Serbia, obtained his BFA from the University of Toronto in 1995 with art history studies at Sheridan College. Renowned for his post-Pop-inspired paintings, prints, and vibrant abstract sculptures, Mitic has showcased his creations at esteemed venues such as the Muramatsu Gallery in Tokyo, The Armory Show in NYC, Art Chicago, and in his hometown of Toronto. His work is held in corporate, private, and public collections including the noteworthy Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the Biggs Museum of American Art. Mitic is currently represented by the Oeno Gallery, Bloomfield, ON.
