Valery Oişteanu

Valery Oişteanu (born September 3, 1943) is a Soviet-born Romanian and American poet, art critic, essayist, photographer and performance artist, whose style reflects the influence of Dada and Surrealism. He is the brother of Romanian anthropologist and writer Andrei Oişteanu.

Biography

Oişteanu was born on in Karaganda, Kazakh SSR, being brought up and educated in Romania. He graduated from the Department of Chemical Industry of the Politechnical Institute in Bucharest.

Oişteanu made his debut Romania in 1970, with a collection of poems called "Proteze". Owing to his Jewish ancestry, the communist regime allowed him to emigrate to New York City in 1972 or 1973, and he has been writing in English ever since.

Oişteanu adopted Dada and Surrealism as a philosophy of art and life. He appears regularly at poetry readings in various New York venues, where he presents original performances of Zen and Dada-inspired "jazzoetry." He is a freelance art critic on the permanent staff at several arts magazines, including "The Brooklyn Rail", "NY ARTS", "Rain Taxi", the Spanish publication "art.es", and the Canadian magazine "D'Art International". He is a member of Poets and Writers Inc. in New York and the founder and president of PASS-Poets and Artists Surrealist Society.

Poetry written in English

*"Underground Shadows" (Pass Press, New York, 1977)
*"Underwater Temples" (Pass Press, New York, 1979)
*"Do Not Defuse" (Pass Press, New York, 1980)
*"Vis-a-vis Bali" (poems and photographic collage; New Observation Press, New York 1985)
*"ZEN DADA" (Linear Art Press, New York, 1989)
*"Passport to Eternal Life" (Pass Press, New York, 1990)
*"Moons of Venus" (Pass Press, New York, 1992)
*"Temporary Immortality" (Pass Press, New York, 1995)

Prose written in English

*"The King of Penguins" (Linear Arts Books, New York, 2000)