Most art carries a story. Unfortunately, galleries are usually busy giving us the dates, materials and the name of the collections, as if that’s what Frida Kahlo or Pablo Picasso cared about. Don’t get me started on audio guides.

I go to exhibitions to do one thing: look up close. Each piece of art can be a portal into an artist’s view of the world. I’m no art historian, but I go deep to find a story that may facilitate the appreciation of a work of art. And then I share it with you, because isn’t that what life is all about?

Art should be enjoyable by itself, for its own sake, for the aesthetics, the beauty, the weird. Why the commentary then? Because I want to get to know the oddballs behind the art and what they’ve had to say, not the academic navel-gazing.

I’m writing this series, so that you want to see these exhibitions yourself. If it gets you into a museum, then my job is done. That’s my little manifesto. Feel free to tell me if you love (or hate!) these stories.

Remember to look up close,
Florin