Vasa Velizar Mihich (born 1933), known as Vasa, is an American artist based in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Born in Yugoslavia, Vasa has lived in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

since his arrival in the United States in 1960. He is an academically trained painter and was a professor at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in the Department of Design and Media Arts. He taught theories of color to understand interdependence and interaction of color and form, color and quantity, color and placement, and after-image. Now retired as a professor emeritus,UCLA faculty profile
/ref> Vasa focuses on his

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

practice. His studio, designed to accommodate the technology required for his work, is located in the heart of

. He makes laminated

acrylic Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...

sculptures that reflect and

refract In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomeno ...

light.''The Guardian'', October 16, 2006
/ref> He has had solo exhibitions at galleries in the United States, Japan, Italy and Serbia, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, the San Diego Museum of Art, and the

Palm Springs Desert Museum The Palm Springs Art Museum (formerly the Palm Springs Desert Museum) was founded in 1938, and is a regional art, natural science and performing arts institution for Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, in Riverside County, California, United St ...

. Vasa is best known for his sculptures made from colored pieces of acrylic. ''Untitled'' from 1975, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, demonstrates the effect of these minimalist sculptures. The Denver Art Museum, the

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

(Los Angeles), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), the Honolulu Museum of Art,

The Phillips Collection The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips and Marjorie Acker Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H. Laughlin, ...

(Washington, D.C.), the

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Muse ...

(Brussels), the San Diego Museum of Art, the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, and the Wilhelm Lehmbrech Museum (Duisburg, Germany) are among the public collections holding work by Vasa Mihich.

References

* * Mihich, Vasa, ''Vasa'', Vasa Studio Inc., 2006

Footnotes

Painters from California American contemporary painters Modern painters Yugoslav emigrants to the United States 1933 births Living people 20th-century American sculptors American male sculptors 20th-century American painters American male painters American people of Serbian descent Sculptors from California 20th-century American male artists {{US-painter-stub