The Romanian Cultural Institute in London presents the exhibition Four Romanian Artists, including painting and drawing by Florica Prevenda, Anca Boeriu, Florin Stoiciu and Alexandru Radvan. The works illustrate four books by award-winning Romanian writers Mircea Ivanescu, Max Blecher, Constantin Noica and Ioan Grosan published by the University of Plymouth Press in 2009.
The books are part of a new series called 20 Romanian Writers, a landmark collection of the very best Romanian writing from the past 100 years. The first four volumes of the series are: Lines poems by Mircea Ivanescu, Occurence in the immediate reality by Max Blecher, Six maladies of the contemporary spirit by Constantin Noica and The cinematography caravan by Ioan Grosan.
Each volume is complemented with a 16 page full color supplement featuring acclaimed Romanian visual artists.
Florica Prevenda (b. 1959) lives and works in Bucharest. Her work layers visual-tactile matter over urban signs of human presence. Taking the face as a fundamental theme, she inscribes existentially pithy messages through the surface, the imprints and the crust of the tones of white, grey and black. As with Ivanescu's poetry, the affects are elusive, yet evocative. Exhibitions include Face at the National Museum of Art, Bucharest (1999); Metropolis in the Shadow of the Present, Simeza (2004). Solo exhibitions at Arthus Gallery, Brussels (1999, 2001, 2004).
Anca Boeriu (b. 1957) is a painter and illustrator. She is influenced by human bodies that are always in a state of tension, so there is a relationship between Blecher's condition and her art - Blecher had spinal TB, and remained in bed for the last ten years of his life. Boeriu is an associate lecturer at the National University of the Arts, Bucharest. Awards include: First prize for installation, Radio France International, Paris (1991) and Lithography award, Tulcea, Romania (1994).
Florin Stoiciu (b. 1965) is Senior Lecturer at the University of Arts in Bucharest. His concerns are stylistic and thematic; including sharp, sometimes comic observation. Allegorical in effect, human dillemas are invoked. Like Noica, his explorations of change in Romania are bitter-sweet, with an existential undertone. Winner of the Romanian youth prize and first prizes for Bibliophile books, 1996 and Dominus contest 1993 and 1995.
Alexandru Radvan (b. 1977) lectures at the University of Arts in Bucharest. He questions essential notions of meaning and reality, Christian belief structures and ancient mythologies. Nihilistic in tone, like Grosan, his art investigates rhetorics of truth and ambiguity. Personal exhibitions include: Wond'ring aloud, Anaid Art Gallery, Bucharest; Zeus & Europa, Calina Gallery, Timisoara; and Huldigung des Judas & der Kreuzfahrer, Hattingen. Awards: Opera Prima, Prometheus Awards 2007 and Alexandru Tzipoia Foundation Prize for the best exhibition of 2001.
When: 21 January - 19 February 2010, Mon-Fri: 10am - 5pm;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute, 1 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PH