Alin Vonica

Dumitru (Tica) Vonica (1924- 2001), Alin's father, is the author of the works and the artist in the picture.
It's as if the term "outsider" was created for Tica. A medical doctor with a natural artistic talent, who lived most of his life in Cluj, the unofficial capital of Transylvania, a historic province now part of Romania, he turned resolutely to painting in the early 60s and never looked back. This was 'thaw" time in Eastern Europe, and artists, professional or amateurs, were feverishly exploring new directions, inspired by the West and driven by a long-repressed yearning for freedom. Tica saw art as a purpose in itself, and compromise, whether imposed by government policies, or demanded by the ever changing public taste, was never an considered. A self-taught artist and restless intellectual, he remained devoted to his art as the good 60s turned into the bad 70s, and the dark, cold and hungry 80s of notorious Communist Romania, made worse by the bipolar condition which devastated the last two decades of his life.
Tica created a parallel universe of refined colors, depths, details and bold strokes, appealing to souls yearning for solace and minds eager for challenge. His work is a living testimony for Tica's lonely fight aga...

Medical School (Sibiu and Cluj, Romania) 1943-1949

Arthaus, Dallas, TX, 1994-95
ArtExpert Exhibition, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2011
Ward-Nasse, New York, 2016