Miho Baće

I was born in Dubrovnik, a city where the sea, stone, light and horizon have always shaped the way I see the world.

My studio is located in Kantafig, in a space that once belonged to my grandmother. For me, it is more than a place to work. It is also a part of my personal memory and family heritage. This is where my paintings are created – between memories of Dubrovnik, its everyday life, and my constant desire to look at the familiar from a different perspective.

My painting is rooted in the tradition of strong colour and expressive freedom that characterises Dubrovnik’s artistic heritage. I see myself as a successor to a broader colourist tradition of Dubrovnik painting, but I do not wish merely to inherit it. I want to continue it through my own visual language – contemporary abstraction, intense colour, layered surfaces and expressive gesture.

For me, colour is more than a formal artistic element. It carries emotion, atmosphere and memory. I often begin with motifs that are close to me – the sea, the horizon, islands, women, the human body, houses, journeys and the landscape of Dubrovnik – but gradually free them from literal representation. I am interested in the moment when a motif ceases to be merely something we recognise and becomes something we feel.

The horizon appears frequently in my work. It is not simply a line between sea and sky. It is a space between what we have left behind and what lies ahead of us. My horizons are therefore both personal and universal.

I work primarily in oil on canvas, using a palette knife and strong, expressive brushwork. I am not interested in reproducing reality. I am interested in its inner energy – in what remains when everything unnecessary has been removed from the image.

I do not see my work as a finished story. Every painting opens another space for me – another view, another question and another horizon.