Dragos Neagoe

Dragos Neagoe (b 1975) is a Romania sculptor. Born in Bucharest, he now lives and works in Bucharest. In his works he studies the evolution of the sculptural volume and expression throughout history, study doubled by an research of the free natural forms in the natural environment. Known mostly for the series of Heads and the ecological series of Shapes – created in the last decade in close connection with his activity as professional beekeeper. Drago? Neagoe is a member of the artistic community STUP.

Dragos Neagoe studies, in his works, the sculptural volume and its three dimensional evolution / development, with a dedication that demonstrates, with each project, a very special type of relation with his subjects – be they moments in the art history, a certain character or the shapes of natural structures. The artist is documenting and researching his theme of choice and expands it / continues it until he connects with it on a very profound level: that of the motivation, content, artistic expression and the unavoidable engagement of the artistic gesture.

In his series Heads, and Every shape, he retraces a history of the arts. He investigates the evolutions and transformations of the portrait and of the human figure, both understood as most relevant for the way sculptors relate to the volume, materiality and thematic. In these works the cultural references are very direct and they function as cultural quotations. An antithetic project is The dreams of Ion Petrisor, in which he analyzes, with deep emotional involvement and compassion the history of a real person (link http://simeza.blogspot.com/2012/08/).

His activist ecological project, Shapes, shifts the investigation towards the development of the natural structures created by the bees. The connection with his subject is yet again very profound, immersive, complete and intensely emotional. In the last decade, Dragos Neagoe has also been a professional beekeeper, dedicating himself to the observation, care and interaction with bees, and analyzing all of the aspects of their life: the shapes and textures of their structures, the relations between the poles of natural shapes – haphazard and original order, and last but not least, their vulnerability, endangerment, the destructive impact of human aggression against the environment. An activist, militant engagement of his art was a natural consequence.

His projects, very different as thematic, nevertheless share the same thorough theoretical research and deep emotional connection, and are also connected by another ongoing research: a continuous investigation of the specificity of the materials he sculpts and of the relation between materiality and representation, between substance and content.

Artist represented by Cygler Art Gallery.