Drawing Mentality 2012-2022, Extensive Survey with 191 Works on Paper and Large Scale Paintings, Galerija Velenje (SI), 4.8 - 3.9.2022

(Photo: © Mitja Konic)

Deja Bečaj, RETURNING

A decade has passed since painter Mitja Konić left Slovenia and enrolled into a postgraduate program at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. Now he returns to his native Velenje and is commemorating the comeback with a retrospective exhibition, which echoes the sentiment of returning. Returning home and returning to the drawing. Just as a drawing can be the basis of an artistic process, it is also the central subject of this exhibition dominated by the so-called small works on paper. As a medium, drawing is predisposedly a more intimate form of expression, because we associate it with the momentary, the impetuous and with the "hit" of inspiration. There is a purity of unencumberedness in it, as it primarily serves as a template for further creation. It's the first step. It is a building block that allows upgrades and modifications. But for Konić, a drawing, even as relaxed research or a fleeting sketch, an instant transfer of a moment or feeling to paper, is a complete entity in itself, filled with artistic content. At the same time, as a template, it gives him insight into the unfolding of new dimensions of his own drawing and painting practice. It emphasizes the artist's approach to creation, in which the process is a crucial part of the final artwork – a process that relieves creativity of the fear of the final, as it allows a return to the start, to the new.

Mitja Konić pays a lot of attention to the development of his own typology, which strives for constant novelties, but above all for the authenticity of a recognizable style. He often portrays boarders in the drawing itself (the so-called primary drawing), which offer insight into a new dimension, a universe of new lines, directions and forms. On the other hand, they contain uncontrollable tingling, which gives a feeling of flickering and at the same time stagnation due to the densness of applied scratches. These are the dominant element of Konić's drawings and give a graphic quality with their roughness, breakable nature and sharpness. His work spans cosmic dimensions, natural landscapes or chaos. He calls these various motif branches of his research a "spiral circulation" between the still-emerging semiotic image creation and his own established art practice. In these restless worlds we find a figure that passes, enters and exits from the void of space into our perception. The figure is more often represented with clearer forms when the artist uses motifs from nature. We find it as a hybrid of a tree, a flower or something as vast as the sky. In the presence of nature, Konić's art calms down. There is less chaos, fewer coincidences. Orderliness appears in baroque lines that form storms, exuberant clouds and the sky blustered by wind. Raging backgrounds and natural motifs are also part of a series of larger format drawings where clearer images are placed in the foreground. In them, the artist chooses dynamic intertwinings of human, animal and mystical bodies, which act as if they were unaidedly self-drawn from pale or more intense shades of grey onto paper. Most prevalent figure that "reigns" in the drawings is a tree, which the artist conceives and artistically builds as a body in fluid twists.

With the year 2019, Konić's drawings become lighter. Compared to the work of previous years, the drawings are increasingly minimal, and above all brighter. The void that finds its place in the works is therefore filled with hints of stories from the artist's life. The inscriptions: Eyes Wide Open, Be Gentle, A Small Price to Pay, Hands on Mentality, Look at the Sun appear, which are condensed summaries of the artist's personal baggage. Through irony and with a lighter approach, both difficult and beautiful moments are transformed into intimate records that allow everyone to draw their own conclusions. The personal touch is particularly highlighted in the series Hands on Mentality, where we meet the artist’s self-portrait in profile. The figure, always posed in the same posture, sometimes drowns, blends in or emerges from the circumstances it found itself in.

Although Konić's works allow the viewer to glimpse into the endless plains, the artist single-handedly created boarders, that prevent them from spilling into our reality. Wooden frames, or "homes", as he calls them, emphasize his respect for the medium and elevate the "humble" drawing to the representative level of an opus. On the content level, they keep the drawn image trapped in its own dimension, which, thanks to the small format and wide frames, absorb the gaze into the depth. Even the artist's larger works give the viewer a sense of immersion into scenes, which can be felt especially in the paintings with dominating devouring colours. The monumental canvases are the painter's map contrived out of destiny’s paths and have been at the forefront of his exhibitions until now. This time, however, in the Velenje Gallery, they are in the role of scenery, which allows more than 150 drawings to stop wandering eyes and initiate a unique dialogue with the visitor. The established intimacy between the artist and the work, between the work and the viewer is heightened by attributes in the drawings such as torn edges and the simulation of crumpled paper texture that appear in more recent works. These "mistakes" are another tangible sign that allows the viewer a more authentic contact with the artist and his approach, which is the key of Konić's creation. Through maximum artistic involvement, he elevates each element into a mystical, almost sacred process, in which the inner happenings are transformed into the exceptionality of an image. Making one's own tools, painting supports, the use of raw pigments, and a meditative concentration, supported by experience and openness to experimentation, and the desire to discover new things; explode onto the foundations in alchemical process that through rituals open gaps into new worlds. The view into them is emphasized by the addition of the artist's wooden "windows", which sovereignly return the glance to the onlooker. As the artist's father states: "It is not possible to look at the stars while looking at the ground." And Konić's drawings unlock the paths to them.