Adrian Ghenie creates haunting, psychologically charged paintings that explore the scars of European history through a fusion of personal and collective memory. His work is deeply concerned with the legacies of oppressive ideologies, including communism and eugenics, and he frequently draws on historical and cultural references ranging from Marcel Duchamp and Charles Darwin to the notorious SS officer Josef Mengele. Ghenie's technique recalls the tactile depth of Northern Renaissance masters, blending figurative forms with gestural marks—drips, scrapes, pours, and chiaroscuro—producing compositions that oscillate between clarity, distortion, and decay. A prominent figure of the Cluj School, Ghenie represented Romania at the 2015 Venice Biennale and has exhibited at major institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tate Liverpool, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and Bucharest’s National Museum of Contemporary Art. His paintings consistently achieve multi-million dollar results at auction.

Adrian Ghenie

Romanian

Main

Artist

Printer

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Stéphane Mallarmé