A labor of love a long time in the making, our new exhibition space, Brâncuși Gallery, created as part of last year’s major renovation works and named after the greatest Romanian artist, was inaugurated on September 17th, 2021 with the first retrospective of two-time Pulitzer winner VIOREL FLORESCU, one of the most celebrated photojournalists among New York press of the past decades.
Entitled RECOLLECTIVE and presented in partnership with Howland Cultural Center, Beacon NY (co-curator: Anda Onesa-Lieberman) and the Bronx Documentary Center, the exhibition brings together some of the artist’s most haunting images, captured with insatiable curiosity and a keen eye for the tragic irony of life, which unfolds itself in conflict zones and dangerous places in Haiti, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Russia immediately after the collapse of the USSR, Romania during the 1989 Revolution, and New York during the 9/11 attacks.
The event marked the relaunch of in-person programs at the RCI (with the mandatory health security protocols), on Friday, September 17, 2021 with a reception followed by an Artist Talk and Dialogue with Dorian Branea, Director of RCI, and photojournalist Jon Naso, former Photo Editor at the The Record (NJ), NY Daily News and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
About the exhibition:
“Recollective” is a visual exploration of over five decades of intricate and evocative images by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner international photojournalist Viorel Florescu. Throughout his career, Florescu has directly confronted the zeitgeist with provocative works that tell truths as he has ventured on a courageous journey documenting humanity and our times with his camera and curiosity - not being afraid to depict a wide range of human moments.
In this exhibition of over 60 photographs - some from the early years, depicting scenes from his beloved homeland, Romania, plus many historical events, portraits of real people affected by huge life experiences, and peculiar urban life stories - are also included images of conflict zones, often distressing and violent documentary photographs from across the world. Overall, scenes beautiful and disturbing unfold as Florescu finds the truth beyond the visible and the tangible.
