AFTER THE FALL: 18 Artists from Eastern and Central Europe
Marius Bercea, Adrian Ghenie, Ion Grigorescu, Ciprian Mureşan, Şerban Savu, and Leonardo Silaghi featured in the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art exhibition


Livia Straus and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art (HVCCA), along the support of RCINY, attempt to bring together some of the best contemporary work from Eastern and Central Europe, and in so doing, to discern similarities and differences among the individual works and in relation to art in the West. More importantly, this collection is an effort to explicate why artists from this region are making such compelling work at this moment. Predominantly featuring paintings, the exhibition includes six Eastern and Central European countries, among which is also Romania, with a significant contribution.

The curators insist that this selection was not made according to the guidelines of a preconception about art from this region, but rather by an almost scientific inquiry similar to Malcom Gladwell’s methodology in Outliers, out of which several common denominators emerged. In selecting the work for AFTER THE FALL, the curators investigated literally hundreds of studios, scores of galleries, art schools, alternative spaces, museums, and art fairs; it was as a result of this elaborate and critical effort that six Romanian artists – Marius Bercea, Adrian Ghenie, Ion Grigorescu, Ciprian Mureşan, Şerban Savu, and Leonardo Silaghi – have been included in this momentous and ambitious collection. In fact, the inception of this inquiry likely occurred in 2006 with two young Romanian artists from the Transylvanian community of Cluj, Victor Man and Adrian Ghenie.

The curators’ findings highlight a few universally dominant factors – these artists were born before the fall of Communism, but their formal training came afterwards; they live in acutely transitional times in their respective countries; they share a sense of respect for and responsibility towards an older, suppressed generation of artists – but among the more surprising common denominators of this inquiry is the sense that, while these artists are interested in what is happening on the international art scene, they are decidedly preoccupied with their own environments, in sustaining their careers within a community of artists and galleries in their hometowns, all of which seems especially true for the Romanian artists working in Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest. According to Marc Straus, “[This] generation has a special respect for the USA, for New York, for its dynamicism, etc. but they are not seduced by it. They don’t want to be American or American artists. They want to be where they are and hope that by staying where they are they will be better artists for it. They want American galleries and they want major American collectors to buy their work, but they are willing to have the process take more time as a result of their commitment to their own country.” 

Among the Romanian artists highlighted in this exhibition, three are important exceptions. The first exception is the 23-year old Cluj-based artist Leonardo Silaghi. The opening of AFTER THE FALL will coincide with the opening of his solo exhibit, following his three-month residency at HVCCA, with the support of RCINY. Silaghi’s large-scale paintings are based on a photographic reality, which is later distilled by means of abstraction. This combination leads to images that are both indistinct and coherent at the same time. He studied at University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and received his MA in painting at the same university.

The other two exceptions represent the older, influential generation. Ion Grigorescu, 63, is practically universally revered among the younger generation of Romanian artists. Although little known to American collectors and galleries, his photographs and videos represent an insular artist’s great risk during the Communist period. Geta Brătescu, 83, “the little recognized Louise Bourgeois of her country and perhaps of all the region,” who is also the only woman among the selected artists (somewhat to the concern of the curators, who came across very little work by female artists and whose selection was “simply based on what [they] believed were the strongest and most compelling works”), will also be featured, towards the end of this exhibit, in a parallel solo show, her first in the U.S.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays by Marc Straus and Mihnea Mircan, and published with the support of RCINY.

AFTER THE FALL will also include a series of lectures and artist talks hosted by HVCCA and other venues in New York Cities, including the Romanian Cultural Institute. The public events kick off on September 19^th with a roundtable discussion featuring many of the artists in the exhibition, including Marius Bercea, Ciprian Mureşan, Şerban Savu, Leonardo Silaghi, along with gallerist Mihai Pop (Plan B Cluj/Berlin). For a full calendar of public events, visit www.hvcca.org.

AFTER THE FALL also features works by Josef Bolf and Daniel Pitin (Czech Republic); Zlatan Vehabović, Josip Tirić, Elvis Kristulović, Goran Skofic, and Marin Majić (Croatia); Zsolt Bodoni, Alexander Tinei, Attila Szűcs (Hungary); Janis Avotins (Latvia); and Matija Brumen (Slovenia).