Born in 1931 in Cetatea-Alba, a Romanian town in Bessarabia that was part of the Soviet Union at the time, Nicolai Dragos entered his country's art scene at a young age in Bucharest. Coming from a well-established and wealthy family in his region, Dragos studied the piano as a child, which initially served to channel his primary artistic interests into music.
At the end of the 1940s, already interested in studying painting, he met Rudolf Schweitzer-Cumpana (1886-1975) and Corneliu Baba (1906-1997), two of his country's most important painters. There he began experimenting with materials and creating his first pieces, echoing his own childhood and its ludic aspects. He also began to create portraits with strong plays of light and shadow, influenced by Baba.
During this period, he also became interested in expressionism, and in 1952 he made a trip to Brussels that would become seminal in his artistic career. He spent two months studying in the Belgian capital and there he met the work of the protagonists of the CoBrA group, who had just held their last exhibition in Liège, also in Belgium. The group—formed by artists from Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam—offered new aesthetic references for Dragos, with semi-figurative and gestural practices and, ultimately, a whole relationship with the method and making of the painting that Dragos identified with and preserved in later decades.
From 1954, when he held his first solo show in Bucharest, Dragos began to exhibit in various solo and group shows in institutions and galleries in cities such as Sofia, Paris, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Le Havre, Istanbul and Warsaw, among others. In 1976, Dragos emigrated to Brazil with his wife, and in the following years his work circulated in various exhibitions, but already at a time when his work as a pathologist was taking up more of his routine and establishing him as a big name in this field, leaving his artistic productions in the background—although they never ceased.
His work is in the collections of Brazilian museums and institutions such as the Museum of Brazilian Art, at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, in São Paulo; the Museu de Arte de Brasília – MAB; the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Campinas José Pancetti – MACC; the Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Paraná – MAC, in Curitiba; the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo – MAM-SP; the Museu de Arte de Santa Catarina – MASC, in Florianópolis; the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; the Centro Universitário Maria Antônia of the Universidade de São Paulo – USP, and the Centro Histórico of the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, in São Paulo.
Nicolai Dragos
1931, Cetatea-Alba, Bessarábia, Romania
2020, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Nicolai Dragos | Seyni Awa Camara, Gomide&Co, São Paulo, Brazil
2007
Nicolai Dragos, Centro Histórico Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil
1996
Nicolai Dragos, Caribé Escritório de Arte, São Paulo, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Centro Universitário Maria Antônia da Universidade de São Paulo – USP, São Paulo, Brazil
1995
Nicolai Dragos, Museu da América Latina, Bucharest, Romania
Nicolai Dragos, Banco Central do Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil
1994
Nicolai Dragos, Galeria Blue Life, São Paulo, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Consulado Geral da Romênia no Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil
1990
Nicolai Dragos, A Hebraica, São Paulo, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Galeria de Arte Atualidades, São Paulo, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Museu de Arte Brasileira da Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado – MAB-FAAP, São Paulo, Brazil
1989
Nicolai Dragos, Fundação Blue Life de Cultura, São Paulo, Brazil
1987
Nicolai Dragos, Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal, Brasília, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Museu de Arte de Santa Catarina – MASC, Florianópolis, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Espaço Cultural Almeida Barone, São Paulo, Brazil
1986
Nicolai Dragos, Espaço Cultural Chap Chap, São Paulo, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, J. Roberto Galeria de Arte, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Instituto de Artes e Cultura da Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto e a Fundação de Arte de Ouro Preto – FAOP, Ouro Preto, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Grande Galeria Alberto da Veiga Guignard na Fundação Clóvis Salgado, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
1985
Nicolai Dragos, Galeria MP2 Arte, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Banco Europeu, Campinas, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Museu de Arte Contemporânea José Pancetti – MAC-Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
Nicolai Dragos, Museu de Arte Brasileira da Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado – MAB-FAAP, São Paulo, Brazil
1981
Nicolai Dragos, Espaço SANBRA (Secretaria da Cultura), São Paulo, Brazil
1974
Nicolai Dragos, Kunst Dert Zeit, Dresden, Germany
Nicolai Dragos, Heijdenrijk, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1973
Nicolai Dragos, Dalles, Bucharest, Romania
1972
Nicolai Dragos, Schumacher, Düsseldorf, Germany
Nicolai Dragos, Sepheriades Euripides, Athens, Greece
Nicolai Dragos, Plastyki Współczesne, Katowice, Poland
Nicolai Dragos, Kunsthandlung, Graz, Austria
1971
Nicolai Dragos, Schumacher, Düsseldorf, Germany
Nicolai Dragos, Bottega d’Arte Moderna, Ferrara, Italy
1970
Nicolai Dragos, Das Fenster, Cologne, Germany
Nicolai Dragos, Lenoir, Paris, France
Nicolai Dragos, Galerie 7, Berlin, Germany
1969
Nicolai Dragos, Milan Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Nicolai Dragos, La Sarbacane, Charleroi, Belgium
Nicolai Dragos, Auditorium Inno, Brussels, Belgium
1968
Nicolai Dragos, Godolphin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Nicolai Dragos, Lambridis, Athens, Greece
Nicolai Dragos, Annan Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
1967
Nicolai Dragos, La Sarbacane, Charleroi, Belgium
Nicolai Dragos, Auditorium Inno, Brussels, Belgium
1965
Nicolai Dragos, Cultural Center, Bucharest, Romania
Nicolai Dragos, Forum, Zagreb, Croatia
Nicolai Dragos, Lenoir, Paris, France
1964
Nicolai Dragos, La Sarbacane, Charleroi, Belgium
Nicolai Dragos, Hamon, Le Havre, France
Nicolai Dragos, Bicen, Istambul, Turkey
1963
Nicolai Dragos, Salon Sztuki DGSA, Katowice, Poland
Nicolai Dragos, Salon Plastyki Wspolczesnej, Warsaw, Poland
1962
Nicolai Dragos, Bicen, Istambul, Turkey
Nicolai Dragos, Lambridis, Athens, Greece
1961
Nicolai Dragos, Sofia, Bulgaria
1956
Nicolai Dragos, Roznovanu Palace, Iasi, Romania
1954
Nicolai Dragos, Cristea Museum, Bucharest, Romania
Group Exhibitions
2006
A II Guerra Mundial: o Brasil e o Monte Castelo, Museu de Arte Brasileira da Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado – MAB-FAAP, Palácio do Planalto, Brasília, Brazil
2005
Acervo 2005, Museu de Arte Brasileira da Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado – MAB-FAAP, São Paulo, Brazil
2003
Arte Que Une: Diversidade e Confluência: Brasil-Europa, Museu de Arte de Brasília – MAB, Brasília, Brazil
1996
Seis artistas romenos, Centro Universitário Maria Antônia da Universidade de São Paulo – USP, São Paulo, Brazil
1991
Grandes Formatos do MAM, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo – MAM-SP, São Paulo, Brazil
1990
Arte e Medicina, Galeria de Arte Sadalla, São Paulo, Brazil
1989
Espaço Cultural Chap Chap, São Paulo, Brazil
1988
Acervo: últimas doações do MAM, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo – MAM-SP, São Paulo, Brazil
1987
Anuário Latino-Americano de Artes Plásticas de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Três décadas de pintura e escultura no acervo do MAM, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo – MAM-SP, São Paulo, Brazil
1986
IV Projeto Zumbi, Pavilhão da Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
C.I.A.C - Nouveau Salon de Paris, Paris, France
XX Prix Internacional d’Art Contemporain de Monte-Carlo, Monaco, France
1985
Racismo, Chaga da Humanidade, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
1982
Olimpíada dos Imigrantes, Pavilhão da Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
I Salão de Arte Contemporânea de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
1980
Olimpíada dos Imigrantes, Pavilhão da Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
1978
Olimpíada dos Imigrantes, Pavilhão da Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
1976
Olimpíada dos Imigrantes, Pavilhão da Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Awards
1986
XX Prix Internacional d’Art Contemporain de Monte-Carlo, Monaco, France
Collections
Centro Histórico da Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil
Centro Universitário Maria Antônia da Universidade de São Paulo – USP, São Paulo, Brazil
Museu de Arte Brasileira da Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado – MAB-FAAP, São Paulo, Brazil
Museu de Arte de Brasília – MAB, Brasília, Brazil
Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Campinas José Pancetti – MACC, Campinas, Brazil
Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Paraná – MAC, Curitiba, Brazil
Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo – MAM-SP, São Paulo, Brazil
Museu de Arte de Santa Catarina – MASC, Florianópolis, Brazil
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
