Victor Man's London Exhibition Explores Mortality Through Intimate Paintings

Victor Man, a Romanian-born artist based in Cluj and Rome, presents an exhibition at David Zwirner in London from September 18 to October 31, 2025. His paintings, created over two decades, delve into themes of death, intimacy, and transformation, often featuring a concise repertoire of figures including self-portraits, mothers, infants, and archangels. Works like Umbra Vitae (2025) depict a self-portrait within an X-ray of a skull, blending psychological introspection with medical imagery. Maternity with Legend (2024) shows a mother and child in an emeraldine hue, evoking a melancholic Madonna-like gaze. Self with Saint Michael the Archangel (2024) portrays the artist with a palette, referencing historical artistic mythology. Pietas (Flower of Gaza) (2025) uses a blue-grey palette to depict a deceased man, echoing the Pietà and connecting to contemporary witness of atrocities, akin to Francisco Goya's The Third of May 1808. Man's palette is minor-key, with livid and pensive tones, and his canvases are often small-scale, inviting close viewing. His art interweaves sleep and wakefulness, with death as a constant presence, and draws from Western painting traditions, including medieval sensibilities revived by artists like Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin. The exhibition is featured in the September 2025 issue of ArtReview.