Mind Set Art Center is honored to present “Nostalgia Around A Self-Portrait”, a solo exhibition of Romanian artist Bogdan Vlăduță. This will be the artist’s first-ever show in Taiwan, and it is set to display more than 20 of the his most representative oil paintings. Collectively, they reflect his pondering on art, resurrection and the self after years of travel in Rome. The exhibit is schedule to run from 28 June through 2 Augst, 2024. The gallery extends a warm invitation to you to join us at the opening reception at 4:30 p.m. on 29 June.
Vlăduță underwent formal training in painting in the 1990’s – a tumultuous period for Romania as the country was transitioning from Communism to a capitalist economy. The drastic shift affected all aspect of society, and Vlăduță, like many of his peers, was uncertain of his path in art. In a fashion not unlike the 17th-century aristocrats and their Grand Tours, Vlăduță eventually headed for Italy to search for the root of renaissance art and religion. During his two-year travel and painting in Rome, the artist discovered a deep connection between his work and Christianity – both share a deep reverence for history and the sanctity of life. He took inspiration from Titian, the renowned Renaissance painter, and began to use mainly black, sienna and ochre to set the tones for his paintings.
Vlăduță’s effort to excavate and resurrect elements in history is embodied “Museum Room with Self-Portrait with Icosahedron”. Inspired by the concept of the “Imaginary Museum" by André Malraux, the artist has, through the act of painting, placed precious cultural artifacts in the museum in his mind. These include the Etruscan Hand, a symbol of an ancient culture, a man holding an Icosahedron, which was considered the perfect shape during the Renaissance, a classical sculpture of the human body, and Roman architecture in the distance. The artist applies loose lines in the vein of “bad painting” on the background, further accentuating the mystery and surrealism in his composition. In another stand-out work, “Van Gogh’s Room with Self-Portraits”, Vlăduță commemorates his idol through the use of muted colours and careful composition: a coffin is placed in the middle of Van Gogh’s iconic studio. The tobacco pipe and the boot on the floor harkens back to some of his most memorable paintings. And through the many self-portraits on the wall, the bygone master painter looks back at the viewers across time and space, silently retelling a lifelong tale of poverty, struggle and perseverance.
Whether it is the embrace of his mother, a past painter crossing the Styx, or spirits residing on top of the Reliquary Hand, Vlăduță distills, through his paintings, moments of him gazing into the past, searching for his spiritual root.
About the Artist
Bogdan Vlăduță was born in 1971 in Romania. He studied painting at the Bucharest National University of Arts and graduated with a Master in 1996. He was later on accepted to the Vasile Pârvan scholarship and, from 2002 to 2004, he traveled to Rome to further his study in painting at the Accademia di Romania. The trip helped the artist realize the connection between the Renaissance and Christianity and his art. He began to study and resurrect the aforementioned subjects in his paintings in a solemn and mysterious manner. In 2007, Vlăduță gave his doctoral thesis with the title "Roman Landscape. Painter's Itinerary". His works have been collected by many prestigious institutions, including the National Museum of Art of Romania, the Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery in London and the A.A.M. Gallery in Rome, among others.
