Dragan Sekaric Shex is a versatile Canadian artist who was educated and trained in Europe, and who is recognized by his use of the sfumato style, by captivating, enigmatic atmospheres, and by emotionally charged canvases. He has won the First Prize in the Oil painting category twice, Artfocus (2003) and City of Toronto Art (2004), he has won the Hillebrand Wine Label Competition (2005) with three images, and he has been a finalist in Book Cover Competitions three times: The University of Toronto Press (1999), McGill-Queen’s University Press (2003), and BOA Editions (2005).
Born in former Yugoslavia, Dragan Sekaric Shex received his university degree in Architecture and Fine Art from the School of Architecture in Sarajevo. While enjoying architecture, he left the profession to study oil painting in Rome believing that his creativity and talent would be better expressed in fine art. In spite of the transition, his primary architectural training is evident in his employment of perspective, and in his excellent grasp of the third dimension and depth. He also occasionally paints urban scenes when he feels the need to revisit Venice and Montreal, cities he loves the most.
Sekaric’s most original contribution to fine art is his modern use of the sfumato style. Equally important is the emotional power in his work which stands out in today’s art dominated by design. Canadian journalist Ralph Benmergui has used the term Magical Realism to describe Sekaric’s canvases painted in the sfumato style. Today one associates this term with Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Latin American Literature. Yet, the term was first used by a fine art critic Franz Roh to define the new neo-realistic attitude toward reality and the attempt to seize the mystery that breathes behind or within our everyday world. Sekaric’s twist on the traditional sfumato style of painting results in works of art which are not outwardly forceful, but which lure the viewer into the painter’s world. We are invited to Meetings, Train Stations or City Streets or Squares full of enigmas and balance and tranquility.
Sekaric is carving a unique place for himself in contemporary art not only by his unconventional and creative use of sfumato style, but also in his approach and reverence he shows his subjects. Nowhere is this more evident than in Sekaric’s elevation of the female. In keeping with the significant changes to women’s roles in society in the 20th century Sekaric has created a series of paintings dedicated and dominated by the female subject. Lady is the protagonist of the painting and not merely the inspiration or the model of yesterday. Half nude, Sekaric’s confident enigmatic modern woman proudly wears conservative religious symbols on her head with sexually provocative icons in the shape of lace and gloves reminiscent of French "Ladies" of the belle époque. Lady won the Hillebrand Wine Label competition (2005) and now graces delicate rose wine in LCBO stores despite Ontario’s prudish liquor history.
In his series of unique flowers, Sekaric was provoked by Posters International’s owner, a woman with a sharp eye for art and an effective psychology for artists, to show once again that the artist can be equally if not more creative than nature.
Dragan Sekaric Shex’s versatility is another of his strengths, and his imaginative response to numerous provocations in life. His earlier paintings are comments on modern wars and human suffering. The human concern is always present in his work, but the atmosphere is more colourful and poetic in his more recent works. His oil on canvas paintings can be seen in his Etobicoke studio (by appointment), in Town Square Gallery in Oakville, in Liss Gallery in Yorkville in Toronto, and in Wyneland Gallery in Niagara Falls Casino. He also regularly participates in the Toronto Art Expo, and occasionally in other art fairs.