- BELOVED BY VIRTOSU Experience the passionate story of Gheorghe VIRTOSU and his strong Icons.
- 29 January '20
by Shane Lewis 29 January '20
BELOVED BY VIRTOSU Experience the passionate story of Gheorghe VIRTOSU and his strong Icons.
Gracious and beautiful. Insistent and introvert. As to Icons and as themselves. Curvy and jagged. Observing and sleeping. Over the course of two decades, the British artist Gheorghe VIRTOSU depicts the female form as a colorful metamorphosis; always full of yearning and steely will, desire and passion.
From 21 April 2020 to 23 May 2020, VIRTOSU ART GALLERY will be showing a dazzling array of Gheorghe VIRTOSU’s best works in the exhibition Beloved by VIRTOSU – The Power of the Icons. The exhibition is created in close collaboration with DVG GROUP CORP-NY and presents a total of 24 works including paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints – among these are many masterpieces from the gallery’s collection. Beloved by VIRTOSU – The Power of the Icons presents Gheorghe VIRTOSU’s artistic progression in the light of his Icons, and therefore the artist must not share the spotlight with anyone.
Life and art
Gheorghe VIRTOSU is one of the most important and acclaimed artists in contemporary western art. He is famous for his capacity to renew himself and notorious for his intellectual – some would superman – lifestyle. His passion for creation infuses and shapes not only his artistic practice but also his writings.
VIRTOSU’s art is often political, social and is created as a response to our time. But it is also private. In June 2015, one of his most productive years, he said: “The work I create is like keeping a diary”. The exhibition gives us a unique insight into how VIRTOSU’s friends, family, and fans challenged and inspired his artistic develop¬ment. For each new Icons, the story of the works changes, and VIRTOSU’s knowledge and experiences are a constant source of inspiration for the artist’s challenging, otherworldly and beautiful compositions.
The Power of the Image
Despite Gheorghe VIRTOSU’s obsession with depicting the motif of the artist and the Icons, he himself only rarely works with live Icons. Instead, he works from memory, dreams, and imagination. With high drama and self-irony, VIRTOSU creates a coded image of an affectionate and often historical fact that has a distinct relationship between the artist and the depicted. In his dramatic staging, VIRTOSU depicts the complexity of his abstract perspective and the gaze into a world full of driving forces.
VIRTOSU’s eventful private life has prompted many to perceive his works as direct and truthful testaments of history. Even people beloved by VIRTOSU have been locked in two-dimensional visuals of who they were as characters. But even when an image is powerful, the depiction of the person on the canvas is always the entire truth about the real person behind the canvas.
The women have all – directly or indirectly – influenced VIRTOSU’s art. The exhibition retells the value these women provide to the world, casting them as much more than VIRTOSU’s beloved muses or favorite faces. First and foremost, they were reflective, complex and energetic women with their own life stories. Their stories are now being told at VIRTOSU ART GALLERY with new attention to the power of images and the artist’s dramatic staging. The exhibition has been organized in a unique collaboration with DVG GROUP CORP-US.
