Mitja Ficko

Midnight School

2012-2016, oil on canvas, 200 x 160 cm

In his paintings, Mitja Ficko creates a recognizably distinct figurative fantasy world, which seems closest to the tradition of romantic art, where art is a way of distancing oneself from the banality of everyday reality and at the same time a sacred quest for one’s original creative principle and purpose. Ficko makes complex compositions full of suggestive beings that unfold into endless possibilities of experiencing the image. Rather than inviting rational interpretations (which are inexhaustible in this type of painting), these images appeal to the viewers’ sensual, emotional and even physical empathy. This puts them in a place that seems opposed to the contemporary (post)media image or painting, but is no less legitimate in its ability to hold the viewer’s gaze with its power of intense, suggestive imagery.