2008 - 2007 works by Dan Voinea

2008 - 2007
Urban Capella installation view
URBAN CAPELLA / Installation View, 2008

URBAN CAPELLA. ABOUT HEROES AND JUDGES, SUB-CARTURESTI GALLERY, Bucharest, September - November, 2008

URBAN CAPELLA. BETWEEN FALL AND ASCENSION

[text by SEBASTIAN AMZA]

Urban Capella, the young artist's project sends us to another Sisteen Chapel (closer to our chaotic times and more ambitious in the author's axiology, yet inspired by the same theme: The Final Judgement!). A Sisteen Chapel in the middle of a crisis, of a painful split between zenith and nadir. Voinea's characters, conceived according to an old oxymoron - Heroes and Judges - are, first of all, consistent. They are life-like and have flesh. The viewer almost feels how their muscles pulsate on them. A wild vitality seems to erupt from their inner beings. Their energetic force is impressive, while their inner flame radiates forcefully. The artist's paintings are to be decoded as a neurotic extrapolation of a series of their author's identity crises. All in all, Voinea's characters live rather dangerously, having been abandoned and suspended in a risky, acrobatic movement. They seem to be balancing in a precarious state somewhere between fall and ascension. The artist calls it a "choreography of the Hero's fall", a "continuous insemination of the nadir". So, on one hand there is the innocent Hero, for ever falling and trying in vain to transcend limits. On the other hand there is the conventional and dull Judge, signifying the immanence. An obvious and regretful act of Luciferic damnation.

Urban Capella installation view with visitors
URBAN CAPELLA / Installation View, 2008
HERO I (Hero on his way), 2007 / oil on canvas / 190 X 200 cm (74,80 x 78,74 in)
HERO V (Ascending Heros), 2008 / oil on canvas / 400 X 250 cm (157,48 x 98,42 in)
HERO IV, 2008 / oil on canvas / 400 X 250 cm (157,48 x 98,42 in)
HERO VI, 2008 / oil on canvas / 300 X 250 cm (118,11 x 98,42 in)
HERO III, 2008 / oil on canvas / 205 X 250 cm (80,70 x 98,42 in)
HERO II, 2008 / oil on canvas / 400 X 250 cm (157,48 x 98,42 in)
HERO VII, 2008 / oil on canvas / 180 X 110 cm (70,86 x 43,30 in)
JUDGE VI (Shaved Judge), 2007 / oil on canvas / 220 X 130 cm (86,61 x 51,18 in)
JUDGE II (Golden Dream Judge), 2008 / oil on canvas / 180 X 110 cm (70,86 x 43,30 in)
JUDGE III, 2007 / oil on canvas / 180 X 110 cm (70,86 x 43,30 in)
JUDGE IX (Judge’s Parade), 2008 / oil on canvas / 180 X 110 cm (70,86 x 43,30 in)
JUDGE I, 2007 / oil on canvas / 180 X 110 cm (70,86 x 43,30 in)
JUDGE IV, 2007 / oil on canvas / 180 X 110 cm (70,86 x 43,30 in)
JUDGE V, 2007 / oil on canvas / 180 X 110 cm (70,86 x 43,30 in)
JUDGE VII (Judge’s Dog), 2007 / oil on canvas / 220 X 130 cm (86,61 x 51,18 in)