calendario eventi  :: 

X

2/3/2007

Adrian Ghenie

Chung King Project, Los Angeles

Solo show

Chung King Project is pleased to host Romanian painter Adrian Ghenie’s first solo exhibition in the United States. Adrian Ghenie (born in 1978 in Cluj, Romania) will present new paintings, which deepen his ongoing exploration of contemporary Romania’s relationship with the relics of its tumultuous past.

His carefully chosen subjects are rooted in his experiences growing up in Cluj, one of Eastern Europe’s most cosmopolitan cities, where the cultural residue of successive colonizers such as the Roman, Austro-Hungarian and Soviet empires, remains thickly layered. With a humorous touch, Ghenie reduces iconic, larger-than-life Communist leaders to human dimensions: Lenin or Stalin are shown walking their small dogs by a gigantic, drained pool—recast as fragile individuals overwhelmed by their surroundings. Urbanism also plays an important role in Ghenie’s oil paintings, whose compositions often include sexually charged scenes of figures in dimly lit interiors, night-time vignettes unfolding on dark streets, and representations of fictitious mausoleums. At the core of Ghenie’s work lies a sharp awareness of his environs and his culture. His paintings comment on the current state of affairs in Romania and explore the country’s place in Europe and the world. His trademark approach marries the technique of old masters with a thoroughly contemporary sense of unease, but the subtle, droll tenor of his work casts a spell that gently draws in even the unsuspecting viewer.

Ghenie belongs to a new wave currently cresting within the Romanian contemporary art scene, which also includes artists such as Victor Man, Mircea Cantor, Ciprian Muresan, Serban Savu and Cristi Pogacean. In October 2006 he had a solo show at galleria plan b, Cluj and in November was included in the exhibition Cluj Connection at Haunch of Venison, Zurich. He is scheduled to be part of Expanded Painting for the 2007 Prague Biennale.

For more information, please contact Francois Ghebaly at +1 213 625 1802 or at info@chungkingproject.com

Opening Reception Saturday 3 March, 6-9 pm

Chung King Project
936 Chung King Road - Los Angeles

stampa

permanent link