Academically trained as a painter, Vasa Mihich originally taught theories of color as a senior Professor of Design at the University of California, Los Angeles. The octogenarian artist has been creating his striking transparent plastics since the late 1960’s in his Los Angeles studio and continues to this day to be a forward-thinking innovator.
Mihich continues to explore the possibilities and development of these cast acrylic sculptures and their accompanying medium. Henry Seldis, the former art critic for the Los Angeles Times, refers to Mihich as “the most sensuous and sensational colorist of the Southern California artists working in plastic.”
I deliberately avoid meaning in my work, although I enjoy the challenges that recognizable symbols pose.
–Vasa Mihich
At just under two feet, Untitled, #977 is a mid-size column in subtle red, orange and purple with a skewed cross section. Mihich’s choice of pastel colors in this piece is joyous and light-hearted in nature, making great use of the interplay of color through red, green and blue sections. These works highlight the interdependence and interaction of color with such other aesthetic aspects as form, quantity, and placement. Academic theories of color and space influenced Mihich’s creation of acrylic sculptures, which both reflect and refract the light. To create his minimalist sculptures, the artist first casts acrylic in large forms of varying thicknesses, often interleaved with layers of clear acrylic and transparent polychromed sheets, cutting them into the desired dimensions. Laminations are made with a polymerized adhesive known as “Weld-On 40”. This “glue-like adhesive” must be quickly applied –sometimes in less than 20 minutes. Then the parts are “machined” and polished to a smooth finish.
Private collection, CA., until 2022
Clarks Auction 2 February 2022
