Handy with a paintbrush and a gun, Viktor Mitic’s provocative art has people all over the world talking about his take on war, religion, and politics.

Artist Viktor Mitic is making headlines in Canada and the UK with his controversial gunshot paintings, which feature portraits of celebrities (Quentin Tarantino, John Lennon), iconic religious figures (Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary), and famous works or art (The Last Supper, Guernica) outlined in bullet holes. Shocked by recent occasions when places of worship were attacked and destroyed; for example, the defacement of Christian frescoes by soldiers and villagers in Kosovo, Mitic explains that his goal is to use weapons in his art to create rather than to destroy. Guns are naturally perceived with uneasiness, and the image of an artist shooting a painting of an iconic figure carries an intense psychological impact; however, the juxtaposition of beauty constructed out of violence in Mitic’s paintings generates an unexpected feeling of tranquility. In his own words, “Although the process is very loud, there is a sense of peace after the smoke is gone.” The fifty works of art presented in this book will be accompanied by writing by ten distinguished Canadian authors, including Lynn Crosbie and Gary Michael Dault.

Viktor Mitic was born in Belgrade, Serbia. A University of Toronto graduate artist, classically trained in art schools in Europe, Mitic has produced a major body of work that spans a career of over two decades. For a number of years, he was painting non-representational paintings using natural elements such as rain and hail to render surfaces of the paintings in oils on canvas. Mitic has successfully integrated various materials into his recent body of work: charcoal, graphite, oil, acrylic, watercolour, pen and ink, and japanese traditional natural pigment. Viktor’s first book, Dealers: 36 Portraits of Toronto’s Art Dealers, was published by Tightrope in 2009.  He has had many successful solo and group shows of his paintings in Europe, the United States, Canada, and, most recently, Japan. Viktor Mitic lives in Toronto.

Ewan Whyte is a writer and translator. He has written for the Globe and Mail and the Literary Review of Canada. His short stories, poetry, translations, and reviews have been published in literary journals and magazines, and he has read his translations of Catullus on public radio in the US. His translation of the poetry of Catullus was published in 2004. He is currently finishing a novel and translating the complete poetry of Horace.

Praise for the paintings of Viktor Mitic:

“Sometimes he’s right on and sometimes he’s not . . . Some of it is smartass, some of it is mischievous, but that’s art too.”
—Charles Pachter, Globe and Mail, USA Today

“Provocative art with religious connotations.”
—Peter Goddard, Toronto Star

“Serious painting, but it’s fun . . . there is levity to it.”
—Terry Graff, Telegraph Journal

[He's] taken . . . an iconic religious image and used a gun on it . . . What next?
—Mark Coles, BBC

ISBN-13: 978-1-926639-15-4
ISBN-10: 1-926639-15-4
$21.95

In the fantastical world of Sandra Kasturi’s poetry, myth intersects with reality resulting in a unique dream world that even those who generally shy away from poetry find irresistible. Filled with instances of role reversal, shapeshifting and gender bending, the feminist streak running through these poems becomes a bedtime story whose ending is suspect, unexpected and filled with dark humour. Whether running with the wolves, or sleeping with them, Kasturi uses her sly words to turn everyday conventions inside out.

Sandra Kasturi is a poet, writer and editor. She is currently working on an animated children’s TV series, a novel and another poetry collection. In 2005 she won ARC magazine’s coveted annual Poem of the Year award for her poem “Old Men, Smoking.” She has also received several Toronto Arts Council grants, and a Bram Stoker Award for her editorial work at the on-line magazine, ChiZine. Sandra has three poetry chapbooks published, as well as the well-received SF poetry anthology, The Stars As Seen from this Particular Angle of Night, which she edited. Her poetry has appeared in various magazines and anthologies, including Prairie Fire, On Spec, several of the Tesseracts series, 2001: A Science Fiction Poetry Anthology, and Northern Frights 4. Her cultural essay, “Divine Secrets of the Yaga Sisterhood” appeared in the anthology Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Slayers, Mutants and Freaks. Sandra is a founding member of the Algonquin Square Table poetry workshop and runs her own imprint, Kelp Queen Press. The Animal Bridegroom is her first full-length poetry collection.

ISBN – 10:0973864567
ISBN – 13:9780973864564

14.95 CAD