Dumitru Gorzo

Dumitru Gorzo (born 1975) is a Romanian contemporary artist. Born in Ieud, Romania, he lives and works in Bucharest and Brooklyn, New York.^[1]

Gorzo received an MFA in Visual Arts from the Bucharest National University of Arts in 1999, then studied with painter Florin Mitroi.^[2] He was one of the founding members of 'Rostopasca', an influential contemporary artistic movement in Romania. Gorzo's methods of working have ranged from street prankster to performance artist to studio painter and sculptor.^[3]

Gorzo first began to gain renown for his overtly sexual and political subject matter in 2003, when his guerrilla public installation Cocoons in Bucharest drew attention from a Romanian television station claiming the work had been done by Satanists. Gorzo had glued 350 small plaster, larvae-like figurines to the walls of buildings in the center of the Romanian capital, inciting public debate among passersby about their broader meaning.

His works tend to feature a satirical attitude toward societal issues, which has made him a controversial figure among more conservative critics and segments of the Romanian public. His work spans a wide range of themes and media, from hand-hewn wooden reliefs informed by Romanian folkloric aesthetics to sculptures of found objects and paintings characterized by a bold contemporary, conceptual, and neo-pop sensibility.

In 2005, Gorzo sustained a broken leg in an assault following the opening of the provocatively titled exhibition Mr. President Is a Sexual Object at HT003 Gallery in Bucharest, allegedly carried out by unofficial secret-service agents. The exhibition depicted the faces of Romanian presidents silkscreened onto pillows and impaled on a tree with wooden penises for branches.

In 2006, Gorzo presented a major solo exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) in Bucharest, which subsequently traveled to the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu. In 2010, he participated in Badly Happy, a group exhibition at the Marina Abramović Institute. His work has continued to be exhibited in museum and institutional contexts in Romania and internationally, culminating most recently in the solo exhibition INWARDS/OUTWARDS at MARe – The Museum of Recent Art in Bucharest in 2025.

·       2025 – INWARDS/OUTWARDS, MARe – The Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest, RO

·       2025 – Inhabitance, SLAG&RX, New York, NY, USA

·       2025 – Pictodrome, Arsmonitor Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2024 – Astea Nu Sunt Desene, Borderline Art Space, Iași, RO

·       2024 – Double Take, SLAG&RX, New York, NY, USA

·       2024 – Doi Gorzo, Arsmonitor Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2023 – Forms, RX&SLAG, Paris, FR

·       2023 – Continuous Studio VI: Utopia, Worth It, Palace of Culture, Casa cu Lei, Bistrița, RO

·       2023 – Magenta Little Red Riding Hood, /SAC @ MALMAISON, Bucharest, RO

·       2023 – Continuous Studio V: The Wall, /SAC @ MALMAISON, Bucharest, RO

·       2022 – New Forms, Command of the Timișoara Garrison, Timișoara, RO

·       2022 – Continuous Studio IV, Command of the Timișoara Garrison, Timișoara, RO

·       2022 – Continuous Studio III / Perpetual Studio, Pasaj I and II Galleries, Râmnicu Vâlcea, RO

·       2021 – Body Parts, Museum of Art, Constanța, RO

·       2021 – Continuous Studio: The Workspace and the Exhibition, /SAC @ MALMAISON, Bucharest, RO

·       2021 – Picturi cu vârf și îndesat, Magazinul Universal and Banatul Montan Museum, Reșița, RO

·       2021 – Fuga de acasă, MARe – The Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest, RO

·       2020 – Generative System, Slag Gallery, New York City, USA

·       2020 – Private Jet, /SAC, Bucharest, RO

·       2019 – GHEORGHE, National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest, RO

·       2019 – Lucrări cu coadă, urmează cu vârf, 1.5 / Cărturești Carusel, Bucharest, RO

·       2019 – Field Trip, VOLTA, New York City, USA

·       2018 – Gorzo Now, /SAC, Bucharest, RO

·       2018 – Beyond and Within, Slag Gallery, New York City, USA

·       2017 – Contagiune, ARTCUB, Bucharest, RO

·       2016 – RESILIENCE, Miercurea Ciuc, RO

·       2016 – Protected by Weeds, H’Art Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2016 – FEND OFF, Slag Gallery, New York City, USA

·       2016 – IZVORUL 2, Aiurart Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2015 – Strata, Kevin Cavanagh Gallery, Dublin, IE

·       2014 – NO TITLE, Slag Gallery, New York City, USA

·       2013 – Out of Love, H’Art Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2013 – Walking a Porous Border, Slag Gallery, New York City, USA

·       2012 – Heads, New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art (NJ MoCA), USA

·       2012 – Mirror, VOLTA, New York City, USA

·       2012 – Reality’s Nostalgia, Slag Contemporary, New York City, USA

·       2011 – Not Tourists, BOX 13 Art Space, Houston, USA

·       2011 – The Fiasco of the End of the World, Jecza Gallery, Timișoara, RO

·       2010 – Super C, Slag Gallery, New York City, USA

·       2010 – Outdoor Project on Greenwich Street, New York City, USA

·       2010 – Wunderkabinett, Laika Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2009 – The Welded Book, CNDB – National Dance Centre of Bucharest, RO

·       2009 – Core, Slag Gallery, New York City, USA

·       2008 – In the Corner of My Eye, Slag Gallery, New York City, USA

·       2007 – Short Stories of Gorzo, Atelier Vam Eck, Düsseldorf, DE

·       2007 – Belle Roumanie, Kulturfabrik, Luxembourg, LU

·       2007 – Don’t Complicate the Sleeping Baroque, Kunst Raum Noe, Vienna, AT

·       2007 – The Fence, urban intervention/public art, Bucharest, RO

·       2007 – Punct de colectare a artei, street debate/public art, Sibiu, RO

·       2007 – 7 Babes, Mie Lefever Gallery, Ghent, BE

·       2007 – Indian Lava & Ritz Mood Guru: Present Salve Fiat Romuli Nepos, Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, RO

·       2006 – I Like God, H’Art Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2006 – Indian Lava & Ritz Mood Guru: Present Salve Fiat Romuli Nepos, MNAC, Bucharest, RO

·       2005 – Mr. President Is a Sexual Object, HT003 Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2005 – Welcome to Paradise, H’Art Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2004 – Dilitdotcom – Symptoms of Contemporary Myth, Anaid Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2004 – Rural Art Protest, HT003 Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2003 – Rediscovering the Nude Beauty, H’Art Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2003 – Cocoons, street intervention, Bucharest, RO

·       1999 – GORZO, Eforie Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       1999 – Ompoziție, Căminul Artei Gallery, Bucharest, RO

·       2019 – Women, MARe – The Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest, RO

·       2019 – Così Via, Centotto, Brooklyn, New York City, USA

·       2018 – Heaven from Hell, MARe – The Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest, RO

·       2017 – Resilience, Independent Brussels, BE

·       2017 – ART NOW 2017, Hearst Galleries, New York City, USA

·       2017 – ART@SAP Foundation, Germany

·       2016 – Group exhibition, National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest, RO

·       2015 – Kingston Sculpture Biennial, Kingston, New York City, USA

·       2015 – Thrice Legendary, or Forever Thens, Centotto, New York City, USA

·       2015 – Paintings in Trees, New York City, USA

·       2015 – Rites, Slag Gallery, New York City, USA

·       2014 – Defaced, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Boulder MoCA), Colorado, USA

·       2014 – In Between, Kleindienst Gallery, Cologne, DE

·       2013 – Temporal Strata, VOLTA 9, Basel, Switzerland

·       2013 – Marginal Portraits, or Insides, Centotto, New York City, USA

·       2012 – A Pile of Clowns, Centotto, New York City, USA

·       2011 – Painting Today, Victoria Art Center, Bucharest, RO

·       2010 – Badly Happy, Marina Abramović Institute, San Francisco, USA

·       2010 – Pirates, Bandits and Outlaws, LCCM, Fort Bragg, California, USA

·       2010 – Art Fanatics, Kunsthalle (Műcsarnok), Budapest, HU

·       2009 – That’s All Folks, Stadthalle, Bruges, BE

·       2009 – Εικόνες, Conradi Galerie, Hamburg, DE

·       2009 – Without Hintersinn, Official Side Event of the 11th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, TR

·       2008 – Against All Odds, Slag Gallery, New York City, USA

·       2008 – Under Natural Circumstances, MODEM Modern and Contemporary Art Center, Debrecen, HU

·       2008 – Tajan: Romanian Art Today – History Frees Its Demons, Tajan, Paris, FR

·       2007 – Donumenta 2007, Regensburg, DE

·       2007 – Plus Zwei, MKM Museum Küppersmühle, Duisburg, DE

·       2005 – Offset, Plan B Gallery, Romania, Austria, Italy, Germany

·       2005 – Dance Instructor, performance with Electric Brother, F.A.C.E, Novi Sad, RS

·       2004 – Romanian Artists (and Not Only) Love Ceaușescu’s Palace, MNAC, Bucharest, RO

·       2001 – Context Network, 49th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Romanian Pavilion, Venice, IT

• Dumitru Gorzo, artist biography and exhibition history, MARe – The Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest.

• National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest.

• SLAG&RX Gallery, New York.

• Exhibition catalogues and press materials from participating institutions.

Gorzo is represented by SLAG&RX - New York - Paris

https://www.rxslag.com/en/artists/dumitru-gorzo

https://www.slaggallery.com/chelsea_art_gallery/artists/dumitru-gorzo

• https://www.scena9.ro/article/resita-gorzo-magazin
• https://www.observatorcultural.ro/articol/de-click-atelier-deschis-capitala-artelor-vizuale-ii/
• https://revistaarta.ro/en/dumitru-gorzo-inhabitance/
• Volta Video Interview Archived 3 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine
• Article on Cocoons