Adrian Ghenie

b. 1977, Romanian

By Julien Delagrange

December 9, 2020

Adrian Ghenie is a Romanian contemporary artist, residing and working in Berlin, Germany. His paintings are characterized by dynamic collage-like compositions, strong impastos using a palette knife rather than a brush, a selection of lively colors and strong contrasts, as well as a dazzling sense of movement.

Portrait of Adrian Ghenie. / Photo: Playtech Entertainment (Romania).

Born in 1977 in Baia Mare, Romania, the Romanian artist combines his ingenuity often with a strong sense of humor in a contemporary figurative visual language. However, there is also a darker side and more apocalyptic side to his works, despite the bright colors dominating the surface of the canvas. His oeuvre is marked by personal and art historical references, taking on subjects such as (national) identity, collective (art) history and (personal) style. In fact, the artist believes it has become impossible to create a true personal style and we are bound to be eclectic in this day and age. Adrian Ghenie: “On one hand, I work on an image in an almost classical vein: composition, figuration, use of light. On the other hand, I do not refrain from resorting to all kinds of idioms, such as the surrealist principle of association or the abstract experiments which foreground texture and surface.”[1]

Ghenie is well known as one of the most important figures of the thriving contemporary art scene in Cluj, Romania. Discover more intriguing artists from Cluj in our article on the so-called Cluj School here. The artist has been included in major exhibitions and was included in the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. Ghenie has had major solo and group shows across the face of the earth, including exhibitions in France, United States, Belgium, Germany, Italy and more. Feel free to discover one of these exhibitions with our exhibition review of Adrian Ghenie’s solo show at Tim Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium.

Ghenie is widely collected by important public collections, such as Centre Pompidou, Paris, Tate Modern, London, S.M.A.K., Ghent, Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), Antwerp, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Long Museum and The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Adrian Ghenie is ranked as top 10.000 global top 10 in Romania on Artfacts.[2]

Books on Adrian Ghenie

For further reading on Adrian Ghenie, we highly recommend the following books:

Artworks

Adrian Ghenie, The raft, 2019. Oil on canvas – 230 x 360 cm. Courtesy of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.

Adrian Ghenie, Study for bikini, 2018. Collage on paper – 18.2 × 22.4 cm. Courtesy of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.

Adrian Ghenie, Vincent as old, 2016. Oil on canvas – 203 x 204 cm. Courtesy of Galeria Plan B.

Adrian Ghenie, Study for Pie Fight Interior, 2012. Collage and acrylic on paper, mounted on wood – 81 x 61 cm. Courtesy of Philips.

Adrian Ghenie, Self-portrait as a monkey, 2010. Oil on canvas – 145 × 84 cm. Courtesy of Philips.

Adrian Ghenie, Cruising area, 2006. Oil on canvas – 33.3 × 45 cm. Courtesy of Omer Tiroche Gallery.

Notes:

[1] Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Adrian Ghenie at https://ropac.net/artists/44-adrian-ghenie/ consulted 16/11/2020. [2] Artfacts, Adrian Ghenie at https://artfacts.net/artist/adrian-ghenie/106756 consulted 16/11/2020.

Julien Delagrange

Julien Delagrange (b. 1994, BE) is an art historian, contemporary artist, and the director of CAI and CAI Gallery. Previously, Delagrange has worked for the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels, the Jan Vercruysse Foundation, and the Ghent University Library. His artistic practice and written art criticism are strongly intertwined, examining contemporary art in search of new perspectives in the art world.

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