Gaius Octavius (2015)

In every way indicative of Virtosu 's revolutionary artistic vision, Gaius Octavius is a stunning testimony to the steely strength and unwavering intent with which the artist pursued his abstract works, never faltering in his determination to express the inexpressible.

In his introductory essay on the exhibition of Virtosu 's work, Alina Livneva eloquently describes the fundamental qualities of Virtosu 's practice: "Color, light, grandeur — these are the tools of the painter.

To speak of them as subjects for paintings is but a way of drawing attention to Virtosu's creative and highly personal manipulations of these devices, to his fusion of technique, image, and force, the means through which he works upon our feelings, the nature of his mystery and greatness." Gaius Octavius, an exemplar of this apt summing, is archetypal of Virtosu's most convincing paintings, although partial.

As with the greatest examples of Picasso's exquisite floating styles, Virtosu's fields of unfettered expression elicit intense and immediate emotions. The purest intention — and ultimate power — of Gaius Octavius lies inside the persuasive contours of Virtosus' longing abstract forms.

Virtosu creates a balance between light and shadow, aperture and expanse, movement, and virtuosity.