Rumanian painter Adrian Ghenie (b. 1977) has drawn considerable attention in the art world in recent years, such that he can be said, without exaggeration, to be one of the most successful of all young European artists.

Ghenie’s work is characterised by a very particular sense of colour, dictated by his incredible sensitivity to the art of the past. His search for a new painting technique is tied up with study of form and experiments with texture. Ghenie’s images, melting in the blurred, distorted pictorial space, take on an incredible expressive quality. Twelve canvases have been created specially for this exhibition, the artist engaging in a dialogue with the Hermitage collection in his own unique painterly manner, that harks back to his own perceptions of art in his childhood.