“Mark Verlan. IN LOVE”| A new exhibition at Arbor.art.room

A new Mark Verlan exhibition can be visited at the Arbor.art.room gallery in Bucharest (Str. Transilvaniei 11, sect. 1). The exhibition “Mark Verlan. IN LOVE” offers visitors the chance to discover more of the artist’s notes on love. They are playful, tender, sometimes fantastic fragments that accompany works less known to the general public.

Mark Verlan (1963 – 2020) was one of the legendary artists from Chisinau, with sympathizers on both banks of the Prut, conquered by his nonconformist and bohemian style and the humorous-fantasy imprint of his work. As an artist, Mark Verlan is also interesting through the numerous texts accompanying his works, notes left on the back of paintings, on sheets, on book covers or engraved in wood or stone.

Mark Verlan wanted to place any object found or out of circulation under the sign of art, banknotes, pieces of linoleum, boards, buttons or dolls. One by one, urban landscapes from the time of the flood, the post-Soviet world, the myth of Moldova – the “mouth of heaven”, the universe of bohemian men and the loyal companionship of four-legged animals came under his uncomplaining and ironic eye. However, the central place is occupied by “Venus”, the source of the artist’s fantasies, the partner of “mysterious rituals”, captured in various poses, surrounded by domestic animals, books and candies.
The texts, transcribed and translated with the support of the artist’s grandson, Mark Verlan Jr., and translators Justina Bandol and Natalia Polikarpov, date from the early 2000s to 2020, towards the end of the artist’s life. Following them over the two decades, we notice the change in temperature and shades, the brittle, ironic tone, leaving, towards the end, the place of a poetic and nostalgic one.

“Mark Verlan. IN LOVE” is the fourth and last exhibition in Arbor.art.room’s “Window to Europe” series, which aimed to present to the public Bessarabian artists who started their careers in the late 80s and early the ’90s, at the time of the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the opening of new opportunities in the Western space. We have so far presented Alina Cociere (France), Vasile Rață (Romania), and Nadia Pronina (Ukraine), and we conclude with Mark Verlan, the artist who chose to remain connected to Chisinau, despite invitations received from important international curators.

Arbor’s relationship with Mark Verlan began in 2019, our association organized the last exhibition at Galeria Posibilă before the artist’s death. The “West-Vector-Vostok with Ghenadie Popescu and Mark Verlan” project also benefited from a “Mark Verlan” album and a dialogue between the artists and the public, moderated by Erwin Kessler. During the pandemic, Arbor launched the Virtual Reality: Mark Verlan exhibition online. Marioka Son of Rain, and shortly after that, in early 2021, the artist died, to the dismay of supporters, who initially thought it was another Mark Verlan performance. In reality, however, “the bohemian and unruly painter from Chisinau died as he lived, making death (and the surprise caused to everyone) his last work of art”, wrote the journalist Doinel Tronaru in Adevărul.

This exhibition is organized with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova in Romania. The content of this project does not necessarily reflect the point of view of the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova. ERM is not responsible for the project’s content or how the project results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the Arbor Arts and Culture Association.

Visiting period: 15.02.2024 – 09.03.2024
Closed Monday – Wednesday
17:30 – 19:30 │ Thursday – Friday
12:00 – 18:00 │ Saturday
Entry is free.

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