Vasa Velizar Mihich, Hand Signed Dated 2001 Colorful Acrylic Vasa Laminated Lucite Triangle Sculpture, 2001

Details

Description

Rhomboid, 2001 Laminated acrylic Signed and dated: Vasa / 2001 9.5" H x 4.5" W x 2.5" D (size is … Read more Rhomboid, 2001 Laminated acrylic Signed and dated: Vasa / 2001 9.5" H x 4.5" W x 2.5" D (size is approximate) Vasa Velizar Mihich (born 1933), known as Vasa, is an American artist based in Los Angeles, California. Born in Yugoslavia, Vasa has lived in Los Angeles since his arrival in the United States in 1960. He is an academically trained painter and was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA in the Department of Design and Media Arts. He taught theories of color to understand interdependence and interaction of color and form, color and quantity, color and placement, and after-image. In the 1960s, Vasa developed techniques for working with cast laminated acrylic forms based on simple Euclidean shapes. These prisms of luminous construction are created by composing colored planes within these geometric forms. To fully appreciate these works of art, it is essential to observe them from different angles―the sculptures dimensionality contributes to an ever-changing appearance. Now retired as a professor emeritus, Vasa focuses on his conceptual art practice. His studio, designed to accommodate the technology required for his work, is located in the heart of Los Angeles. He makes laminated acrylic sculptures that reflect and refract light. He has had solo exhibitions at galleries in the United States, Japan, Italy and Serbia, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, the San Diego Museum of Art, and the Palm Springs Desert Museum. Vasa is best known for his sculptures made from colored pieces of the plastic, poly(methyl methacrylate), which is also known as acrylic and by the brand names Plexiglas and Lucite. Untitled from 1975, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, demonstrates the effect of these minimalist sculptures. His work straddles the West Coast Light and Space art movement, Artists such as Robert Irwin, James Turrell, John McCracken, Larry Bell, Craig Kauffman, Billy Al Bengston, Peter Alexander, and Lita Albuquerque. Also heavily influenced by Minimalism (Dan Flavin, Sol Lewitt and Donald Judd) and Op Art (Vasarely, Cruz Diez and Agam), The Denver Art Museum, the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), the Honolulu Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.), the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Brussels), the San Diego Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum (Duisberg, Germany) are among the public collections holding work by Vasa Mihich. The studio was designed and built to accommodate the machinery and advanced technology required for making his paintings and sculptures. An academically trained painter born in Yugoslavia, Vasa became a member of the faculty at the University of Belgrade when he was 23. During a visit to Paris, he became aware of the growing importance of American art, and a few years later immigrated to the United States. Soon after, he became a U.S. citizen. Upon arrival in Los Angeles, Vasa began working with three-dimensional painted constructions. This work was first shown in the Feigen-Palmer Gallery in Los Angeles and was included in the seminal exhibit American Sculptures of the Sixties at the Los Angeles County Art Museum. In 1967, Vasa began working with plastic. Interested in placing color in open space, he began to use clear plastic as a structural support for different planes of transparent color. Expecting to explore this work for a few years, Vasa still continues to discover new possibilities with the medium. In the words of former art critic of the Los Angeles Times, Henry Seldis, Vasa has become "the most sensuous and sensational colorist of the Southern California artists working in plastic". Selected One Man Exhibitions: 1956 Salon of Graphic Arts, Belgrade, Yugoslavia 1966 Feigen Palmer Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1967 Herbert Palmer Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1970 Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, 1972 Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, California Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Yugoslavia 1973 Henri Gallery, Washington, DC Gimpel-Weitzenhoffer, Ltd., New York 1974 Wenger Gallery, San Francisco, California Lantern Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1976 Wenger Gallery, La Jolla, California 1977 Contemporary Art Forms, Encino, California Alice Simsar Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan Zara Gallery, San Francisco, California 1978 Herbert B. Palmer and Co., Beverly Hills, California The Art Package Ltd., Highland Park, Illinois 1979 Zara Gallery, San Francisco, California Gallery West, Los Angeles, California Brena Gallery, Denver, Colorado 1980 Contemporary Gallery, Dallas, Texas Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California Olivetti Cultural Center, Ivrea, Italy 2RC Gallery, Milan, Italy Brunnier Gallery, Iowa State Center, Ames, Iowa 1981 Alice Simsar Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan Gallery West, Los Angeles, California Medici-Berenson Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida 1984 Galerie Ninety-Nine, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida 1985 Posner Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Joseph Chowning Gallery, San Francisco, California Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Yugoslavia 1988 Hokin Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida 1989 Goldman-Kraft Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 1991 Gallery West, Los Angeles, California 1992 John Mallon Gallery, Indianapolis, Indiana Imago, Palm Springs, California 1995 Space TRY, TRYangle Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Museum Collections: Larry Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Yugoslavia University Art Museum, University of New Mexico, Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisberg, Germany Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, California Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, California Miami Museum, Oxford, Ohio Phillips Collection, Washington, DC Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii Milwaukee Art Center, Bradley Collection, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Contemporary Graphics Center, Santa Barbara Museum of Art Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Art Moderne, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, California UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Los Angeles, California San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, See less