Adrian Gheni is a Romanian contemporary artist. He is influenced by personal and historical memory, with a particular focus on national identity. Often compared to Francis Bacon, Gheni prefers to use a pallet knife instead of the traditional paintbrush as it gives a higher sense of movement, expression and texture to the works. Favoring villainous historical and cinematic figures, as well as abstract subjects, his pieces often unveil feelings of vulnerability and frustration.
Living and working between Cluj, Berlin and London, Gheni co-founded in 2005 – together with Mihai Pop – Galeria Plan B in Cuj, a production and exhibition space for contemporary art. Plan B would open a permanent exhibition space in Berlin in 2008.
Adrian Gheni is a promising young artist on the rise, who has been conquering galleries and art collectors in his barely 15 years of artistic career. His large-scale oil on canvas painting The Sunflowers of 1937 fetched an impressive £3.2m at Sotheby’s auction in 2016, becoming the most expensive painting sold by a Romanian artist. Gheni’s work is held in the collections of major museums and public institutions such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art and the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst.
