Opening reception: Saturday, January 19, 6–8pm
Blum & Poe is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in the United States of Romanian artist Victor Man.
Man will present paintings, drawings, and sculptures, using the individual works to form a narrative that evolves into a site-specific installation. For this exhibition, Man begins with the ideas of violence and sexuality, and examines them in a delicate and poetic manner. The works render esoteric imagery, such as a painting of wolves in a winter landscape, a painting of an unidentifiable planet, and a charcoal drawing of wolves eating a mythological half-woman and half-horse figure. Man appropriates images, relying on the removal from its prior context to provoke the viewer to seek their own recognition. The palate is often dim and reflects a dream-like vision, a mystified meditation that we are led to decipher. Man’s process transforms the found images into mirrored facades that adopt roles divorced from any independent time or place.
Man engages with the influence of negative space, suggesting that what is not there can be as powerful as what is. His installations contain the surrounding area, as they establish a disconnect from any preconceived ideas that is then bridged by a dialogue between the works. It is the relationships born within the assemblages that elucidate the meaning of each piece. The visceral aspect is a reminder that the past does not have a singular linear form, and it must be traced by passages of associations and oppositions. There is an element of nostalgia, yet it does not provide comfort, but rather disorients us in our recollection. Each work acts as a clue, fractured memories that bring a sublime awareness of the intimacy in obscurity.
In 2007, Victor Man was included in the Venice Biennale 52 in the Romanian Pavilion as well as the Prague Biennale 3 in the Czech Republic. He also had solo exhibitions at Johnen + Schottle, Cologne; Johnen Galerie, Berlin: and Galeria Zero, Milan. Man was in several group exhibitions recently, including Gesellschaftsbilder, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany; Duet, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY; Makers and Modelers, Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY; and Paper Baglady & Other Stories, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK. In 2008, Man will have an exhibition at GAMEC, Bergamo, Italy. Victor Man lives and works in Cluj-Napoca in Romania.