ANCA PEDVIS
MY STORY
I started my training as an artist when I was twelve. However, drawing and painting have been my obsession since I could hold a pencil in my hand. I went to an Art High School in Bucharest and then to the Fine Arts University, being extensively trained in all known techniques of painting and mural painting. After six years, I received my MFA in Fine Arts and Mural Painting.
I was born in the Communist Romania, to a mixed Jewish-Christian family. My parents met in an Evening School they both attended in order to continue their studies while having day jobs. They fell in love. During the fascist Legionary Rebellion of January 1941, my father had to hide in my mother's cellar for three weeks, in order to escape the pogrom that would purge the city of its Jews, for three long days and nights. That ordeal must have cemented their relationship, because soon after that they married, and my sister and I were born. My father took my mother's Christian name, and for ten years we all hid under that name.
I've always been aware of the tensions between my parents' families. For my father's, we were seemingly illegitimate— a glacial undertow of indifference was always coming from them. As to my mother's, there would be glances and under the breath comments. They seemed to scrutinize even our physical features, and draw whispered conclusions.
When I was ten, from one day to another, I had to respond in school to a different, utterly complicated, foreign sounding name. I was bewildered, excited, everybody would ask questions— I was finally popular. Then rumors started to reach me and I began to understand: for Christians I would always be a Jew. For Jews, I would always be a goy.
This existential dichotomy has shaped my whole being. It led to my free thinking and my utter rejection of bias and prejudice of all shapes and strains. At the same time, those people that had accounted for the totality of my family against their will, would haunt my art for ever. Time and time again, I would turn to my family photographs, look at them and see the stubborn hold of their preordination, mingled with genuine kindness and an untapped reserve for tolerance and mutual acceptance.
My solo shows would have names like "Relative Tensions" or "Take 2", being about my people and my feelings towards them. I would indiscriminately paint them, making their humanity obvious and acceptable to one another, while underlining their existential ephemerality by literally tilting and cropping the images, as if they just happened upon my canvas while passing by, left their trace and vanished.
ANCA PEDVIS CV
Anca Pedvis was born in Bucharest, Romania. She started her art education when she was twelve years old. She went to the Art High School in Bucharest, and then to the Fine Arts University in Bucharest where she received her MFA in Mural Painting, in 1970.
After graduation, she was actively present on the art scene of Bucharest, participating in the Annual National Exhibitions of the Romanian Artists’ Union, and in various international shows, like the Romanian Contemporary Art Show in Geneva; the International Grand Prix of Contemporary Art in Monte Carlo; the Juan Miró Drawing Contest in Barcelona; and the Inaugural Japan Art Society Exhibition in Tokyo.
In 1979 she was awarded the UNESCO Prize at the XIV-eme Grand Prix International d’Art Contemporaine de Monte Carlo.
In Bucharest, she had two solo shows— in 1979 and 1983. She also had a solo show at the European School in Mol, Belgium, in 1981.
In 1984 Anca Pedvis left Romania and emigrated to Israel. After one year in Israel, and one year in Paris, she came to the US, and settled in Greenwich, CT.
As a member of the Greenwich Art Society, she showed her work in Greenwich and Stamford.
In 1986 she received the Mary B. Hathaway Award at the Greenwich Art Society Annual Exhibition.
During the same year, she also completed a number of mural paintings in high-end residencies around New York City.
In 1992 Anca Pedvis showed her work at Tamenaga Gallery, in NYC and at Michael Ende Gallery, NYC, in 1993.
During the same period, she also started to work as a freelance textile designer for high-end home furnishing companies, like Cowtan and Tout and Concord. Her home furnishing designs were featured in the Architectural Digest on two separate occasions.
In 2000 and 2001 she showed her work in the Annual Magical Mystery Show, at the Merrill & Jennings Gallery, in Davidson, NC.
From 2005 on, Anca Pedvis has fully dedicated her time to her painting.
She became a member of the Taylor Foundation in Paris in 2006, also showing her work in Paris, at the Galerie Acteart and Galerie Edifor.
In 2007 she showed her work at The 118th Annual Exhibition of The National Association of Women Artists, held at the Monroe Center for the Arts, in Monroe, NJ.
In 2010 and 2011 she participated in two NOMAA organized shows— Women In The Heights: Perspectives, and Immigrant.
In 2010, she became a member in one of the oldest art organization on the East Coast— the Silvermine Arts Guild Center, set in New Canaan, CT.
In 2011, she had a solo show, Relative Tensions at the RIVAA Gallery on Roosevelt Island. She continued to show regularly with this gallery, until 2012.
In 2013 she had a solo show at the Silvermine Galleries—Take 2.
The same year she participated in the show Brimming On The Edge, organized by the Harlem Art Association at the Andrew Friedman House, in the Bronx.
She is a permanent member of the the Romanian Fine Artists' Union, since 1980.
Other Memberships:
2010 - present: Silvermine Arts Guild Center
2007 - 2011: RIVAA Gallery, NY
2006 - present: Taylor Foundation, Paris, France
2000 -2003: Pen and Brush Club, New York, NY
2000 - present: The Graphic Artists Guild
Presently, Anca Pedvis lives and works in New York City.