ALEXANDRU RǍDVAN

MYTHICAL FLESH

Curators: Mark Gisbourne and Diana Dochia

21st April – 26th June, 2021 (online viewing room)

www.anaidartgallery.com

30th April – 2nd May 2021, 12:00 – 18:00 Gallery Weekend Berlin (Zimmerstrasse 90, 10117 Berlin)

Charlottenwalk, Saturday, 19th of June, 12:00 – 18:00 (Waitzstrasse 2, 10629)

Supported by Stiftung Kunstfonds thru NeuStart Kultur

The extensive solo show “Mythical Flesh” signed by Alexandru Rădvan presents the artist’s creation of the last seven years – the period 2014—2021 – and offers an exhaustive body of work produced across many media, from drawing on paper and various textiles, to oversized paintings on canvas, and large two to three-dimensional sculptures made from metal and/or applied resin. His subject matter and general themes consist of an intense and committed engagement with ancient myths and mythologies, usually those of a Mediterranean origin, yet personally recast into understanding and reinvigorating them anew in the current context.

Due to the current situation in the world we rethink our entire exhibition program for the year 2021 implementing the most innovative online technologies, so to can be to the disposable of the public and collectors 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. The exhibition “Mythical Flesh” is our first exhibition that integrates the hybrid system – online/offline. In this way the exhibition is accessible to the general public at every moment and independent from the pandemic situation.

We have thought through the exhibition instigating three different sequences:

The first sequence is the 3D online viewing room presentation of the exhibition that presents around 100 art pieces – paintings, sculptures, works on paper, textiles - signed by Alexandru Rădvan and executed between 2014-2021. Alexandru Rădvan thinks through subject themes that have a starting point in those richly fascinating mythological characters like Hercules, Prometheus, Narcissus, or narrative myths such as Daphne and Apollo and Pygmalion and Galatea. The extended groups of work each represent a defined series and subject matter, each with a distinctive title that collectively provides a panorama of his wider artistic conceptualizations. The exhibition in grouped around seven distinctive thematic chapters: “On Rituals and Sun”, “Meridional”, “Pygmalion”, “Strange Women”, “Apollo & Daphne”, “Hercules”, and “Self-portrait”. The viewer is warmly invited to visit the exhibition through presentational 3D online viewing room technology. The online exhibition “Mythical Flesh” presents all the artworks that will be offered to the public also in an extensive catalogue published by Kerber Verlag.

Link 3D online viewing room:
https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/en/exhibition/5911440/mythical-flesh

The second sequence of the project is an offline presentation of ten big pieces - paintings, picto-relief and sculptures - in the beautiful old room buildings from Zimmerstrasse 90, 10117 Berlin. The selection of this artworks states under the following statement of the artist: 'I believe the past is a great way of telling stories about the present. I believe that life and art are larger than the seconds lived now. I too believe, like Pier Paolo Pasolini that "Only what is mythical is real and only what is real is mythical". This explains everything I did.' The curators choose for this offline presentation important piece from the series “On Rituals and Sun”, “Pygmalion”, “Hercules” and “Self-portrait”. Due to the current situation in Berlin, it is possible that the exhibition will not be able to be open to public access, so stay in touch with our website, www.anaidartgallery.com. If is possible to open to the public, please be aware that you should have an appointment at info@anaidartgallery.com, a negative Corona Test and to where a FFP-2 Mask. Do not worry if you are not able to visit the exhibition because it will be filmed and put it online. Eventually you can download our app on both iPhone or Android and see in the comfort of your home, thru use of this application the exhibition can also be projected onto your house walls.

The third sequence is on Saturday, 19th June 2021, when we will present some of the works, also offline, from “Mythical Flesh” by Alexandru Radvan in the framework of Charlottenwalk event and also we will launch the catalogue publication issued by Kerber Verlag.

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Alexandru Rădvan (b.1977)
Lives and works in Bucharest, Romania

Alexandru Rădvan is among the most intriguing artists of the Eastern European art space. Born in Bucharest, Romania in 1977, he started his career at the end of the 1990s, after finishing his studies at the Bucharest University of the Arts. An institution that has given the art world some now illustrious modern and contemporary international artist such as Constantin Brâncuşi, Max Hermann Maxy, Victor Brauner, Peter Jacobi, Paul Neagu and Florin Mitroi. In fact, during his university years, Rădvan followed
Florin Mitroi's painting classes, an artist with a particular way of drawing and painting. As a result, at the end of his studies, Rădvan became Mitroi's painting department assistant, he is currently a lecturer at the University of Art in Bucharest. Over the years, the artist create an extensive body of work - drawings, collages, paintings and sculptures - that depicts ancient narratives that still carry forward into contemporary society a form of symbolic meaning and knowledge.His creation depicts a world beyond any norm, full of contradictions, anxieties, conflicts, desires that are somehow isolated from the society around him. Alexandru Rădvan thinks through subject themes that have a starting point in those richly fascinating mythological characters like Hercules, Prometheus, Narcissus or narrative myths such as Apollo and Daphne and Pygmalion and Galatea.