Aurel Vlad
Critical References
"Like Flemish masters or baroque sculptors, but different and elsewhere, wandering in a Wallachia sometimes desolate, sometimes mythical, Aurel Vlad is an artist who has the horror of a vacuum. In other words, only the vacuum attracts him, only the vacuum fascinates him. Aurel Vlad creates his metal structures, miniatures or giants, gypsum people, wooden giants or wire gnomes, crucified or prostitutes, tribal emblems and heraldic insignia with the same desire to face the void.
A Don Quixote with Herculean imagination and impulses…
The force he imagines in himself when he works makes him not only conceive a world, but, faithful to his daimon, to "attack" it.
Aurel Vlad's fictional world is a world that he himself, the artist, shakes, fragments, shatters.
This act of violence is his way of being humble in the face of what is out of his hands. And the sculptural work, thus dislocated and contorting like a living organism, is completed, assimilating a part of the concrete, corporal figure of its creator. ” (Mihai Măniuţiu, “Le Monde diplomatique”, Romanian edition, June 2008).
Resume
Studies:
2005 - Doctor in Visual Arts with the thesis: "Gesture in sculpture between expression and symbol", National University of Arts, Bucharest
1984 - “Nicolae Grigorescu” Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture Section (Prof. Geta Caragiu Gheorghita, Prof. Marin Iliescu), Bucharest
Awards and scholarships:
2016 - "Constantin Brancusi" Award, MLNR and the Romanian Academy
2014 - Award for excellence in art, UAP Romania
2011 - Diploma of Excellence & Award for culture, "George Apostu" Culture Center, Bacau
2009 - “Constantin Brancusi” Grand Prize, Biennial of Painting, Sculpture and Graphics, Arad
2003 - Third Prize, International Sculpture Symposium, Fuente Palmera, Córdoba, Spain
2002 - "Omnia" Award for Sculpture, Romanian Academy, Bucharest
2000 - National Order "For Merit" in the rank of Commander, Romanian Presidency
1998 - Grand Prix, Municipal Salon, Bucharest
1990 - Prize for Sculpture, Visual Artists’ Union of Romania
1986 - "Dimitrie Paciurea" Scholarship
Personal exhibitions:
2015 - "Silent Witness", Galateea Gallery, Bucharest
2014 - "Beasts and spells", "Alexandru Stefulescu" County Museum, Targu Jiu, Gorj
2014 - "(Un)Rest", Simeza Gallery, Bucharest
2013 - “Fear”, Uj Kriterion Gallery, Miercurea Ciuc, Harghita
2011 - "(Un)Rest of a World", Art Museum, Timisoara
2010 - "Gesture Laboratory", "George Apostu" Culture Center, Bacau
2010 - "Gesture and Truth in sculpture", Brancoveanu Palaces Cultural Center, Mogosoaia
2010 - "Woodwork", 418 Gallery, Bucharest
2008 - 2009 - "The Parable of the Hunted Hunter", Klosterneuburg, Austria 2008 - G5 Kultur am Gärtnerplatz, Munich, Germany
2007 - Zehentstadel, Hemau, Germany 2007 - "Two", Simeza Gallery, Bucharest
2006 - Residence of the German Ambassador, Bucharest
2005 - Simeza Gallery, Bucharest
2002 – deInterese Gallery, Bucharest
2001 – Mayor’s Office Hall, Gütersloh, Germany
1997 - 1998 - Kretulescu Hall, National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest
1997 - Catacomba Gallery, Bucharest
1993 - Catacomba Gallery, Bucharest
1990 - Orizont Gallery, Bucharest
Group exhibitions:
2013 - "FIG 1", Simeza Gallery, Bucharest
2012 - International Art Biennial, Grottaglie, Italy
2011 - "Homo politicus", Totem Gallery, Venice, Italy
- "Art Embodied", Romanian Cultural Institute, London, Great Britain
- "Funeral Home", National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest
2010 - International Art Biennial, Grottaglie, Italy
- "Woman and Man", Art Museum, Parnu, Estonia
- "Lemne.ro", National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest
- „El camino sacral”, Galeria Dana, Iasi
2007 - "Archetypes", National Gallery of Contemporary Art, New Delhi, India
2004 - "Good morning, Balkans", Cotroceni National Museum, Bucharest
2002 - "Orbis Urbis Europa", Apollo Gallery, Bucharest
2001 - "Angels and People", Strasbourg, France
2001 - "Künstlerhaus", Munich, Germany
2000 - World's Fair, Hanover, Germany;
2000 - "56.5", Simeza Gallery, Bucharest
1999 - "A Latin Byzantine", Bramante Hall, Rome, Italy
- "The Sacred in Art", Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest
- "Kinship and heritage", Kalinderu Hall, Bucharest
1998 - Triennial of Sculpture, Osaka, Japan
- "Transfigurations", Mücsarnok Museum, Budapest, Hungary
- "Figurative Art", Cobra Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- "Romanian Contemporary Art", Leipzig, Germany
1997 - "Art in today's Romania", Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany
- "Sacredness in art", Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest
- "Art '97", National Bank Museum, Bucharest
1996 - "Dantesque" Biennial, Ravenna, Italy
- "Experiment", 3/4 Gallery, National Theater, Bucharest
- Art Fair, Nice, France
1995 - Venice Biennale, Romanian Pavilion, Italy
- "People of colored wood", Catacomba Gallery, Bucharest
- Klauss Braun Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany
1994 - "Byzantine after Byzantine", Venice, Italy
- "Theme", The National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest
1993 - "The first steps - Romanian art of the '90s", IFA, Berlin, Stuttgart, Bonn, Germany
1992 - Universal Exhibition "Seville '92", Romanian Pavilion, Spain
- "Artists for Romania", The National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest
1991 - "Terracotta", Simeza Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
- "Possibilities of the surface", Simeza Gallery, Bucharest
- "Untitled state", Timisoara
1990 - Asia-Europe Biennial, Ankara, Turkey
- "Auriga", Atelier 35 Gallery, Bucharest
- "Filocalia" (Philokalia), 3/4 Gallery, National Theater, Bucharest