The Romanian artist Andu Avasilinei, who uses the name Andu Ava now he lives and works in London, grew up in Bucharest, and from 2007 to 2010 studied at the Universitatea Naţională de Arte (University of Fine Arts) in Bucharest. His graduation exhibition, Damnatio Memoriae, was a complex composition depicting a Roman orgy on a massive canvas, which captured the attention of art critic and collector Radu Calin Georgescu. In his book Hermeneutică a Nudului în Arta Românească (Hermeneutics of the Nude in Romanian Art), Georgescu wrote ‘Avasilinei is a unique talent, atypical for his heritage, young, but already a mature artist with the guts and talent to shake any audience’.

Later that year Avasilinei left Bucharest for Italy with a full scholarship for a master of arts at the Accademia Di Belle Arti in Venice. It was in Venice, where he developed and defined his artistic skills, that he became known as one of the most controversial names among his peers for creating bold statements, true to his passion of showing the world as it really is rather than in a conventional, idealised way. Believing that real beauty is found in the imperfections of the human body, his work explores breaking down the matrix of beauty as dictated by popular culture.

Having explored the full extent of his playful yet challenging time in Venice, Avasilinei left for London in 2014, where he now lives and works. His recent projects continue to explore the naked female body, including a series titled Anima Mundi, a mixture of personal love stories with new visions of old Greek myths to create a counter-perspective of feminine beauty.

We are very grateful to our Russian friend Yuri for introducing us to the work of this artist, and for supplying most of the images.