Gheorghe Virtosu

The work of artist Gheorghe Virtosu is driven by his complex, and at times harsh, life experience. Though his life has been difficult at points, it has led to an understanding that Virtosu believes he can share with others. As an artist, he is driven by the desire to better the world by sharing his experience. At first, his work was undertaken in private — a direct result of a long period of difficulty and solitude — but now Virtosu is sharing his art with the world. Born in Romania in 1968, Virtosu is of the generation that came of age as the calcified Eastern Bloc was slouching towards its final collapse in 1989. Suddenly — literally — a world of possibilities opened up to young people from Eastern Europe. With unimaginable options now open to him, Virtosu left the Republic of Moldova after his compulsory military service and three-year stint in the state security services was complete. He travelled the world, soaking up its rich and varied textures, and eventually settled in London and became a British citizen. Alternating between living in freedom and suffering in confinement has been a fact of Virtosu’s life, both as a young man and in adulthood. This theme — the struggle to find meaning and beauty amidst the harsh reality of life — is a powerful narrative force in his painting. While living through a period of incarceration — during which Virtosu struggled with the loneliness that is inherent when one is separated from the outside world — he took up writing as a form of self-therapy. Virtosu also took up the painter’s brush in earnest — he is a self-taught artist — and began to create abstract, thematic paintings that feature bold colors in pursuit of a mystical ascension above the ugliness of the world. With titles that reference the “real world” — such as Iranian Spirit, Blairism, and Gaddafi Sentence — the paintings approach varied themes from the multicultural world we share. They are images that spring from a psyche enriched with a broad and experienced worldview. Each piece is singular, yet each carries a genuine complexity of meaning within which can be found the means to decipher the image itself. His imagery can be puzzling and other-worldly, though while his paintings — his characters — may tell little of themselves, they tell much of the world of which they are a part, the world of complexity and variable motivations in which we all live our lives. Virtosu believes his work is rooted in exploring the various aspects of his own personality. They are reflections that capture characteristics both positive and negative, from a ruthless focus on survival to an ethereal appreciation of life’s mystery and beauty. With both his writing and painting, Virtosu finds in the creative process a way to process — and then elevate — the negative emotions that have at times overwhelmed him. His works are part of a complex coding, a method of processing his experiences. When ready, Virtosu starts sketching in blue and red pen on white paper, a story-coding style he developed while serving in the military. As the process continues — sometimes slowly over a year or two, oftentimes in dreams — colors are added to the original sketch. His style is unique and individualistic, an intelligent art that moves away from realism and into the realm of the mystical. Through his art, he passes his message to the world.

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