About Mystik Mask and Aleksandar Atza Visnjic

Alexander Gate ::  BIO

Sacred path through 30 year exploration of the face form, led to discovering :: Mystik Mask Art ::

At a very young age, Alex spent a year by the Egyptian temples of Alexandria and Cairo, which had a profound impact on his view of the world and his interest in art and philosophy. While growing up on the island of Losinj in the Adriatic Sea, he started to draw in ways that led to an intuitive style that would keep returning throughout his life. From abstract to mystical realism, it was always about the face. In the end, Alex surrendered to his true calling, and began to draw from the place where art and soul meet to create and inspire.

Through the High School for Industrial Design and the University of Art, Academy of Applied Arts and Design, Alex’s skills and experience were developing, and a knowledge on alternative sciences and ancient cultures grew as a personal interest. After the university, he was involved in the architectural industry, illustration and graphic design. His love for graphic symbols and the message they convey through their design, Alex always regarded as an important step in his growth as an artist. All this time black ink drawings kept coming back, as a creative and intuitive contact with his soul. Still not conscious of that deep connection, he went on with his life, working from Belgrade, Serbia, Paris, France, Boston, Massachusetts, to Vancouver, BC, Canada, where he settled for the last 18 years, with his wife Nadja and two daughters. Closeness of the pristine nature to their home on the Capilano River Canyon, triggered the abstract phase in drawings and paintings, that were in the last year and a half transformed into Mystik Mask creations.

Mystik Masks started as mystical, graphic face-like symbols with an ancient cultural feel. Alex decided to create a drawing and write a note with it every day, and he didn’t miss a single day for more than 500 drawings. As the exploration of the face form went through the phases, drawings eventually became too complex in detail to finish them in a single day. Next step happened when in preparing for the exhibition, Alex transferred one of the drawings to the 48″ x 48″ canvas and created a new level Mystik Masks are presented. So far through more than 500 art pieces, evolution from a simple symbol to a complex rendering of the human face transformed with inked patterns of organic forms, represents Alexander Gate’s way of seeing and expressing the uniqueness of every human being. Mystik Masks are created in the form of acrylic ink drawings and acrylic paintings on canvas from 5”x 5” up to 48”x 48” in size.

Alex exhibited in Canada and Serbia in solo and group art shows and his art is present in corporate and private collections throughout the world…….

For more info, please call 604.603.2024 or email  me@atza.com

25 thoughts on “About Mystik Mask and Aleksandar Atza Visnjic”

  1. Hi 🙂 I just found your site and I wanted to say that I find the concept very interesting. Often, we live behind a fragile facade so that no-one can see us for who we really are. The idea of putting on one of your masks to find one’s true self is thought-provoking, a quality which I always admire in art.

    Reply

    1. Drawings contain sacred geometry principles and through symbolism they speak to our subconscious being. Thanks for seeing deeply through the layers…

      Reply

  2. I like sketching a circle behind it.
    You remind me of the habit which I often do. from the first I often draw the circles when I was bored and depressed by the routine of work, I do not know why the circles always managed to make me more relaxed. I think the circles are always took me to get new inspiration.

    Reply

    1. Circle is three dimensional representation of a sphere, which is seed of life. Basic sacred geometry. When you draw basic geometrical objects, you connect to much deeper aspects of yourself.

      Reply

  7. Just discovered your webpage …and your intriguing art. Spirituality is it’s essance wrapped in controlled, wild, energy. I am in awe. As a fellow artist…your lines of ink and your words of ancient wisdom are truly inspiring. No mistakes. I was searching for some words of wisdom for two unconnected lives of major significance. One that came to a tragic end and was just found, the other..a tiny life…in hospice care. Thank you for existing…in this time, this place.

    Reply

    1. You are welcome. That is for me the magic of being conscious of our other deeper non ending side. I feel that you could be writing from some other time. Now, here, is the connection, moment shared, inspired. Who wrote this I don’t know, hope I had some part in it. Cheers… Literarily

      Reply

  10. While considering the fragmentation and disintegration of the morals and ethics of the human race, I randomly(?) click on your site, out of pure coincidence (?).

    I see, in your work, not the building of a human spirit – but the loss of it. I see it dissolving, and floating away.

    I’m sure that’s not what you see, or planned. But, to me, the timing of these images – and what has been on my mind before finding them – is ironic.

    Reply

      2. Well, Hope is a part of heart energy, when I focus in the heart, possibilities never seen before start to colour my view of life : )

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