Abstract
The Red Rock series was inspired by red rock formations in Sedona, Arizona. The formations appear to glow in brilliant orange, pink and red when illuminated by the rising or setting sun.
"Bedrock refers to a secure fondation, to basic principles, to an elemental essence - in addition to the solid rock beneath us and soil.” The Bedrock series explores encounters with Earth landscapes and geological processes in artists imagination and perception.
Silver Ore paintings inspired by silver-bearing rocks that are found in Cerro Ricco Mountains in Peru - rich in colors and textures.
The Magma series was inspired by the surreal flows and intrusions of molten or semi-molten rock into adjacent formations (forming igneous dikes and sills), extrusion onto the surface as lava, and explosive ejections. In his chosen palette for this series, Vityk creates a symbolic geologic layering and forceful intrusions of red magma-like melted formations into the body of dark colored canvas.
Total abstraction is by definition the complete lack of subject matter. Max Vityk’s new series of sculptural paintings, Outcrops, appear to be completely non-representational, yet are based on the most concrete of subjects—the Earth’s geological formations.
Named by geologists to describe an exposed section of bedrock on the Earth’s surface, outcrops are invaluable to scientists as they reveal hundreds, thousands and even millions and billions of years of geologic evolution. Outcrops become visible through the slow process of erosion, movement along fault lines, or sudden display brought about by manmade road cuts.
The five large monochrome abstract canvases from the Energy series are inspired by the five elements of energy from the Indian ancient philosophy. Painted in 2013 - the strong colors of Vityk's monochromes visualize energy of space (black), energy of transformation (red), energy of water and air (blue), energy of sun (yellow) and energy of growth (green) - the basis for our whole universe, from animate to inanimate, from particle to atom.
In the “Landscapes” series, we can see the creative and spiritual unity of the author with the artistic ideas of artists from the Ukrainian “Pictorial Reservation” group. Max Vityk creates dense, plastic and nearly prominent compositions on the surface of canvases that disappear when you look closer at them, like those of impressionists, but from a distance they are assembled in the images of meditative landscapes – beautiful and peculiar. Again, in front of your eyes, they change from familiar to absolutely abstract, breathing and pulsing with thickly mixed colors.
Created in 2011, previously free from geometrism, Vityk’s compositions in Hutcul series acquire a geometrically arranged structure and a strict order corresponding to Hutcul ornamental rhythms. I am not sure that any artist has ever used construction foam before in their works. It is an unexpected and extremely smart know-how by Max Vityk. Foam is light and rather dense. The artist uses it instead of a fuse, which is usually used in such cases.
Almost each of Vityk’s exhibitions had at least one painting with a... ladder on it. To my mind, they are united in one cycle and I once dreamt about them presented as one exhibition, which, unfortunately, has so far not been organized.
“In 2009, “Triptych” gallery, exhibited an extremely exquisite set of minimalistic paintings, “Silver & Black”...“Silver & Black” – his personal journey to explore Color and Texture. Here he tried to reproduce seemingly pure and cold emotions. Yet, how can emotions be cold?
