Magda Amarioarei

Because I am working with somewhat limited funds, for me some of the fun of art collecting is finding someone with incredible talent, who might be at the start of their careers, sometimes in grad school or even college, and see what they are up.  Once an artist is "discovered", it's difficult to acquire much of their work without spending lots of money.  So the key is, educate yourself.  I remember when I was relatively early in my collecting and I was seeing how this collector and that collector were using art advisers. I thought, "gee, maybe I should be doing that.  These folks with money probably know what they're talking about."  Then I read something Charles Saatchi wrote about advisers, basically dismissing the whole notion and saying he collected what he believed to be worthy.  I follow that same line.  I don't need somebody telling me who is good and who to collect.  So what's the point of this blog?  To facilitate discussion.  I'm not here to dictate to you who is good. I am here to let you know who I think is good and talented, and you are free to agree or disagree and we go from there.  If Herb and Dorothy Vogel could collect such a magnificent and seminal collection of art on a relatively limited budget, then so can I and so can you.  Obviously you need a great set of eyes, or several great sets of eyes, you get to know artists personally and early in their careers, and you follow them as you and they grow older together.  It really enriches one's life and it is very fulfilling. I can attest to that.

So, for the first artist of this blog I have chosen a relative newbie to the art scene, Magda Amarioarei.  I came to know Magda's work through a friend of hers and am very thankful for that initial recommendation that I take a look at her work.  I wasn't able to actually see her work in person (something I am often faced with as I don't have the time nor the money to be crisscrossing the globe to look at art or anything else for that matter) but what I saw through pics on her website, http://www.wix.com/amarioareimagda/ro/projects , and pics which she sent to me really amazed me.  Magda is from Romania and is very early in her career, about 23 years old and in an MFA program, though has shown in several shows.  The quality of her work is quite apparent from first glance. The emotion her work conveys is what I love.  Well, I should preface that if you're into happy, fun types of work, this will definitely not be your cup of tea.  This leans to the depressed and pensive. But I like that it does that.  It conveys some of the same emotions you often feel with Kathe Kollwitz or Edward Hopper.  Obviously the compositions of all 3 of these painters are vastly different, but the emotional output is similar.  Some of the works also make you want you to touch their surfaces, like you might a photograph.  If you buy the work, you can do just that.  If you visit my home, please resist doing that to my pieces.

The smaller and newer works, part of the Recovery Cycle series, are oil on panel.  They look like they are created with a pencil or ink pen or piece of charcoal.  They are very detailed, and some convey a good deal of realism.  They are like little jewels when you see them up close and in person. The name itself conveys a sense of trying to build again, to get back some semblance of what once was.  I love the effect, but you need to see them up close to see what she has done.  Many of the images harken to WWII scenes, possibly of the camps, of areas that may be forgotten, left behind, where the overgrown weeds frames a memorialized scene.  Instead of blowing up small objects onto a huge canvas, she takes huge objects and shrinks them down onto a panel which you can hold in the palm of your hand, like a postcard.

The larger canvases from the newest series, as well as the large and small canvases from the Lanscape-Time series, all convey a sense of decay and of time passing by.  The pieces of architecture, often disembodied, are like lost souls, friends which have been ditched and forgotten.

She shows the "other" side of life, perhaps a seemier side, or at least a side that perhaps has been forgotten. She shows objects, often architectural structures in a state of decline, with overgrown weeds taking over.

Look at the work above, and what appears again to be pencil marks is oil on panel again.  I love the scratches on the piece, almost like I'm happening upon the pieces after they have been lost in storage for decades. 
What I love about Magda's work is the originality of it and the quality, especially for how young she is.  I look forward to how her work will evolve over time.  At the present time, because of her age, and that she has not yet settled with any particular gallery, her prices are still affordable for somebody working on a fairly tight budget.  I am acquiring her works because each one tells me a story.  I want to read as many pages as possible of this story, though I'm not sure I want the story to end.  There's always another twist and turn waiting for me around the corner.  (I will try to get some other photos up within these pages though most are unable to be directly imported here, hence the links. Forgive my unstreamlined blog posting.)