98 3/8 x 82 5/8 in
BAZIS Contemporary
In collaboration with
Anaid Art Gallery Berlin
CENTRUL DE INTERES,
Fabricii de Chibrituri street 9, 4th floor, Cluj-Napoca
Event details:
Opening: May 7, 2019, 19.00 - 22.00
May 7 - June 15, 2019
ALEXANDRU RĂDVAN
Partner for the Abyss
Curator: Diana Dochia
Alexandru Rădvan, one of the most controversial artists of his generation, tries tirelessly to penetrate the darkest and most abject human desires. There, in the inner darkness, in the serenity of silence, the artist shapes his heroes and goddesses in oversized autoportraits, in which oneself becomes an alter ego of the mythical characters. "Partner for the Abyss" describes an inner state, a permanent desire to find an "Other" capable of deciphering, understanding and accepting a multiplied and multifaceted "I". An "I" born from the abyss, coming from deep chaos where the feeling of inadequacy has its support in the artist's sense of alienation, thru distancing from himself. True knowledge needs conflicts, breaks, contrasts and leaps, a total change. Rădvan searches for these passages at all times, these sketches of an "I" always depicted differently. His current creation resembles a ruby in which the "I" is in some isolation from the surrounding society. There, in the abyss, this "I" discovers the real world, a world full of force and vigor, a world outside of any norm.
Alexandru Rădvan's paintings and drawings are carried out on large surfaces attracting the viewer through both, the impressive dimensions and the addressed topics. The rough, unveiled sexuality, often seeks the marginal, the exception, the abnormal, the fabulous. In the exhibition "Partner for the Abyss" sexuality is used as a tool to give a milestone about the abyss, to create order in disorder. It is a fine-tone representation of a de-doubled "I", which is reinterpreting oneself with himself. His drawings are preparatory sketches, interpreted as a commentary upon the history of humanity, in which all values are dissected.
"Partner for the Abyss" is about the distance between what the "I" wants to be and what can become. Whether this "I" is represented in the form of an ancient goddess, Titan, fertility goddess or hunter. The impossibility of realizing this identity transforms the "I" into a self-condemned who chooses the Eternal Abyss.
Curator: Diana Dochia
Alexandru Rădvan (b. 1977) is a lecturer at the National University of Art Bucharest, the Painting Department. His works have been presented over the years in numerous solo and group shows of which we will mention: "The Sculptor's Studio", Museum of Art, Arad, Romania (2018); "Monuments on the Move - Barbar", French Cultural Institute, Bucharest, Romania (2018); "Divine decadence", Kasteel van Gaasbeek, Gaasbeek, Belgium (2016); "Bucharest Artistic Education and Romanian Art After 1950", National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest, Romania (2015); "Badly Happy", Marina Abramović Institute West (The Performance Art Institute), San Francisco, USA (2010); "Messiahs", Modem - Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, Debrecen, Hungary (2009). He works and lives in Bucharest. Since 2005 is represented by Anaid Art Gallery Bucharest / Berlin.
