Joseph Todorovitch: Explorations in Paint
By Southwest Art: October 15, 2017
The paintings of Joseph Todorovitch are wrought with the beauty of the human figure, striking compositions and a strong understanding of techniques and tools. They are pieces that reach beyond narrative to the artist’s fascination with creating. Todorovitch finds the act of painting to be ceremonial or ritualistic, with this being reflected in some of his artwork such as Rain Maker and Guardian where the women are adorned with crowns of eucalyptus leaves.
“The ceremonial works have a sense of ‘ritual’ that is somewhat absent in my life other than during the process of their creation. They manifest from my feelings about the ‘act of creating things’ that are important to me,” Todorovitch explains. “Creating is spiritual for me (not religious), which is somewhat counter to my everyday life which is rather domestic. I like that these works fulfill that need and express that sentiment about me.”
Other pieces are derived from Todorovitch’s desire to explore design elements. He elaborates that this allows him “to share the domestic pragmatic aspect of my everyday life as well as simply to explore design elements and pictorial issues that are compelling to me. Picture making has become my life and the time spent exploring design has become the spiritual ritual that fills that need.”
Works such as the still life-styled Entropy and the figurative Pollination are examples. The pieces came about when Todorovitch began experimenting with the textural qualities of a group of bees. “Bees are just amazing and there are all these implications that come along with them,” explains the California-based artist.” They were naturally a great design element to use in painting.”
Entropy is a work filled with energy and activity, and came from a moment of chaos in the artist’s life and allowed the painting to take its course. Pollination, he explains, is “such a critical idea of survival and that obviously opens the door for an individual interpretation of the painting.
Other works, such as Greatest Show on Earth, and Ride are explorations with multi-figures, where he is attempting to make the work more complex but yet have a sense of calm and order. The former painting was done from multiple references materials, while Ride is related to another work the artist did of a bicycle he saw in Rome.
“I like exploring different things to see what impacts me the most,” says Todorovitch. “I definitely go back to certain things, but I’m trying to shake up the normal routine with different ideas.”
These and other new works will be displayed in Todorovitch’s second solo exhibition at Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles from October 14 to 28.
For more work by Joseph Todorovitch, click here.