Ermin Tabakovic

Ermin Tabakovic is a contemporary international artist currently residing in Tampa, Florida.

He was born in 1980 in former Yugoslavia where his artistic journey began at a young age. His elementary school teachers recognizing his artistic sensibility and talent placed Ermin in special art programs. In 1993 he moved to Berlin, Germany where he lived as a refugee for five years due to a civil war that led to the breakup of former Yugoslavia.

In 1998 he emigrated to the United States settling in Tampa Bay, Florida. Upon arrival in the US, he started going to St Petersburg College where he began studying art and architecture. He went on to study art at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. In 2006 he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Art Studio with minors in Graphic Design and Art History.

"I’m endlessly fascinated by space especially by a concept called ‘impossible space’ which is essentially a spatial paradox created on a two-dimensional surface that defies logic. By creating these spatial enigmas, my aim is to challenge the viewer’s perception of reality and test the boundaries of what is possible by juxtaposing the seemingly impossible.

We live in a digital age, so I use the hard-edge approach which adds a digital feel to my compositions. I want my works to be striking visually and appeal to our sense of beauty thus my use of rich and vibrant colors, clean lines, bold forms, elegant compositions, etc. There is also a certain metaphysical and surreal component to my works that gives it a sense of mystery.

Modern geometric painting has had a very big influence on me especially the works by Constructivist artists such as Malevich and El Lissitzky and the various other modern Art movements of the early 20th century such as Cubism, Neoplasticism, and Surrealism. In my current work I tend to fuse all these different influences and combine them with my own personal aesthetic…my goal is to create a new, non-objective, geometric visual language with a futuristic undertone that transcends the past and points to something new and different."