Dumitru Gorzo

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Dumitru Gorzo is a contemporary artist living and working between Bucharest and New York. His paintings, drawings and public interventions allude to events occurring in Romania and contemporary society at large, the artist declaring himself to be against the isolation from “real life” through art. The parodic vision manifested in his works has turned him into a controversial artist that has always seemed to escape hindering categorizations with humour and nonchalance. For a number of years, Gorzo has conducted a studio-project called The Continuous Studio, in which people can visit and talk to him while he engages all the visual tools at hand, including the particular space, towards a feverish creation. Surface materiality resonates through the plane of his paintings, revealing their visual and tactile disposition. Evoking traces of De Kooning, Kippenberger, and even Picasso, Gorzo’s Heads, an extensive series by the artist, permeate a world of emotions, shapes, primitive creatures, fairy tales, apparitions. Their visual lexicon is recirculated as a flow of stories told by the artist with insight and careful observation of material and form. Sharp corners and edges become faces, with enhanced or modified traits that oscillate between pure abstraction and variations of expression. These characters scrutinise the world with eyes wide open – carrying the weight of paint, they bring us close to the human condition. Dumitru Gorzo was a co-founder, together with, a. o. Nicolae Comănescu, of the Romanian art group Rostopasca (1998-2001). He exhibited at the National Museum of Art Bucharest, Kulturfabrik Luxembourg, Slag Gallery, New York, the Kingston Sculpture Biennial, New York, Marina Abramovic Institute, San Francisco, SAC / Malmaison Bucharest, Kunst Raum Noe Vienna, National Dance Centre Bucharest, Greenwich Street Outdoor, New York, etc.