Radu Oreian “A sea of green and blue”

1969 Gallery (39 White St.)

[Image: Radu Oreian "A sea of green and blue" (2022) oil and mediums on wood panel, 15h x 24w in.]

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1969 Gallery presents Radu Oreian’s American debut solo exhibition, A sea of green and blue.

Working primarily in abstraction, Oreian simultaneously explores large-scale themes in history and the microscopic functions of the human experience. Ancient mosaic tiles and script adorn Oreian’s work, instantly giving it archaeological significance and the weight of age. His intricate visual amalgamations draw from the vast stylings of religious frescoes and pre-Christian banquet scenes. At the same time, Oreian’s forms appear similar to human cellular structures, fusing essential physical processes with the history and culture that humanity has created.

The final result of this synthesis is a rippling array of textures with intense complexity, as seen in pieces like Thinker of Thoughts III, which combines a geometric grid with an almost fossilized series of etchings and marks. The overall visual impression is one of timelessness and grave importance, yet each piece pulses with an almost electric energy. Oreian creates universes containing endless intersections—art combines with history, mythology, and the sciences, it is fluid and self-replicating.

Radu Oreian (b. 1984, Tarnaveni, Romania) currently lives and works in France. He awarded his first degree in 2005 at the University of Art and Design of Cluj-Napoca and he continued his studies at National University of Art of Bucharest where he graduated in 2007. Radu Oreian’s practice has at its core the classical mediums of drawing and painting and explores the way history, ancient myths and archives shape our society and our understanding of humanity. His ‘Molecular Painting’ are a miniature-like format of works that pulsate with details and thus intend to draw the viewer’s eye deeper and deeper into the fabric of the paint and hopefully deeper and deeper into the nature and meaning of painting. The red thread that runs through Radu Oreian’s works is creating a new, meditative visual imprint of a peculiar density that appears to exist in a pulsing state of tension and relaxation. Radu Oreian has been the protagonist of several solo-shows: SVIT Gallery, Befriending the memory muscle (Prague, 2020, with Ciprian Mureşan), Gallery Nosco, Microsripts and Melted Matters (London, 2019), Gallery ISA, Farewell To The Thinker of Thoughts (Mumbai, 2018). Among his institutional projects: La Fondazione, Project Room (Roma, 2020, solo-show), The Last Agora, Plan B Foundation (Cluj-Napoca, 2019) and Chasseur d’Images, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Paris, 2019). Among his group shows: One in a million, Gallery Nosco (Marseille, 2018) and On The Sex of Angels, Nicodim Gallery (Bucarest, 2017).