Perjovschi, Dan (RO)
Urban Space
Dan Perjovschi
Born 1961 in Sibiu, Romania
Lives in Bucharest
For Dan Perjovschi, drawing is a way of getting to grips with and commenting on
topical issues. He finds his artistic grist in all manner of absurdities and injustices, and since there is plenty to engage him, the viewer is regularly confronted with a myriad of drawings and words. Perjovschi's predominant medium is felt tip pen or chalk. He draws directly onto walls, buildings, streets, and windows, and has for more than 13 years supplied drawings to the Romanian weekly Revista 22. These drawings engage, satirically and polemically, with a wealth of issues - from stories in the media through political and intellectual debates to Perjovschi's own experience of the cynical workings of the art world.
One of Perjovschi's drawings depicts a group of art-goers, their attention focused on a wall panel explaining the painting rather than the work itself. We know the situation; we've been there ourselves. And indeed, the drawing graphically captures the Western world's craving to be clued-up and switched-on. Perjovschi's visual commentary is itself a filtered flow of information. Text, explanations, details, all stripped away, leaving a hotchpotch of drawings whose eloquence is achieved through minimal means.
Perjovschi's visual one-liners, which nail life's absurdities and perennial conflicts, get chuckles and wry smiles from us. Like the traditional jester, Perjovschi unpacks and reconfigures political, social and cultural issues in an entertaining way. Invited in 2006 to draw on the walls of U-TURN's office, his caricatures have looked staff over the shoulder - as a reminder of what art can accomplish - as they worked towards the opening of the exhibition.
Addressing the hot topics of the day, Perjovschi provides no utopian solutions. His drawings simply reflect a critical take on the issues - be it EU enlargement to the east, the influx of refugees or how we conduct ourselves in an art museum - which viewers can engage and connect with as they will.
-CSJ
Lives in Bucharest
For Dan Perjovschi, drawing is a way of getting to grips with and commenting on
topical issues. He finds his artistic grist in all manner of absurdities and injustices, and since there is plenty to engage him, the viewer is regularly confronted with a myriad of drawings and words. Perjovschi's predominant medium is felt tip pen or chalk. He draws directly onto walls, buildings, streets, and windows, and has for more than 13 years supplied drawings to the Romanian weekly Revista 22. These drawings engage, satirically and polemically, with a wealth of issues - from stories in the media through political and intellectual debates to Perjovschi's own experience of the cynical workings of the art world.
One of Perjovschi's drawings depicts a group of art-goers, their attention focused on a wall panel explaining the painting rather than the work itself. We know the situation; we've been there ourselves. And indeed, the drawing graphically captures the Western world's craving to be clued-up and switched-on. Perjovschi's visual commentary is itself a filtered flow of information. Text, explanations, details, all stripped away, leaving a hotchpotch of drawings whose eloquence is achieved through minimal means.
Perjovschi's visual one-liners, which nail life's absurdities and perennial conflicts, get chuckles and wry smiles from us. Like the traditional jester, Perjovschi unpacks and reconfigures political, social and cultural issues in an entertaining way. Invited in 2006 to draw on the walls of U-TURN's office, his caricatures have looked staff over the shoulder - as a reminder of what art can accomplish - as they worked towards the opening of the exhibition.
Addressing the hot topics of the day, Perjovschi provides no utopian solutions. His drawings simply reflect a critical take on the issues - be it EU enlargement to the east, the influx of refugees or how we conduct ourselves in an art museum - which viewers can engage and connect with as they will.
-CSJ