Another East: Romanian Painting

Another East: Romanian Painting

Romanian Cultural Institute

Courtesy the Painting Department from National University of Arts Bucharest (UNARTE).

May 14, 2019
Another East: Romanian Painting
May 18–June 9, 2019
Press preview & artist talk: May 18, 5–6pm
Opening: May 18, 6–9pm
Rivaa Gallery
Roosevelt Island, 527 Main Street
10044 New York NY
www.icr.ro
Facebook

Exhibitors: Ion Anghel, Cezar Atodiresei, Catalin Balescu, Traian Boldea, Marcel Bunea, Petru Lucaci, George Mircea, George Moscal, Alexandru Rădvan, Mihai Sirbulescu, Andrei Tudoran.

Curated by: Catalin Balescu
Art critic: Cristian Robert Velescu

The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York is pleased to announce the group exhibition Another East which runs May 18 through June 9, and which features the works of 11 artists, all professors from the Painting Department of the National University of Arts in Bucharest.

Another East reflects the specific discourses that have formed around and through the Painting Department of the National University of Arts  Bucharest. Curated by Catalin Balescu, and accompanied by a text written by art critic Cristian Robert Velescu, the exhibition brings together a group of professors that have been, and continue to be, a crucial influence on multiple generations of Romanian artists. 

The exhibition oscillates between figuration and abstraction; while some of these artistic practices display their complete autonomy from the politics of representation by embracing the history of Abstraction, others incorporate a figuration inspired by mythologies, religion, as well as from the secular everyday.

Furthermore, the exhibition is an open invitation for the visitors to reconsider their preconceptions of an East they think they know, in order to experience an unquestionably less familiar East—one that is authentic, alive and transformative nonetheless.

For instance, Cezar Atodiresei, revisits the pioneering language of abstract art through geometric, decorative, and intensive explorations of surfaces, to conduct research on urban architecture and to reveal the idea of “the citadel” as the true theme of “the artist.” Similarly, Marcel Bunea, inspired by Plato’s incorruptible Realm of Ideas, is interested in chromatic exercises and in the universality of geometry, elevated beyond the rational laws of nature.

George Mircea and Mircea Sarbulescu also have a more classic approach to painting: their paintings, through their decorative qualities and the bold use of textures and colors, can be perceived as post-impressionist adaptations, contemporary through their subject and topography.

The youngest artist in the exhibition, Andrei Tudoran, breaks from abstraction and uses photorealism as a mimetic and deceiving effect, only to further create alterations, glitches, or superimpositions directly on the paintings. His brushstrokes and his palette of colors, are in dialogue with the work of his former professor, George Moscal, whose work in the exhibition, draws closer to surrealism, by collapsing illusions of space, landscapes, and flat visual elements.

Similarly, oscillating between abstraction and figuration, and further using mixed media in layered compositions to highlight this contrast, are Petru Lucaci and Ion Anghel, two painters who have had a long history of using photography, respectively found objects in their work.

Meanwhile, the painters Alexandru Radvan, Catalin Balescu and Traian Boldea (student of Balescu, prior to becoming himself a professor at the University) adopt a fully figurative approach. They show a keen interest in surrealism, mythologies, and religious iconographies, working through their distinctive formal styles, to reinterpret and even challengethese narratives.

The exhibition layers multiple visual local traditions that have been fused together with major Western art historical canons. Most importantly, Another East proposes a bird’s-eye view on a specific academic and temporal context, which brings about a diversity of strategies that alternate between abstraction and figuration. These strategies have served as tools for multiple generations of artists, for interpreting, adopting, as well as critically considering the period of Modernism and Post-Modernism in relation to Romanian art discourses, and more specifically, in relation to the discourse surrounding the National University of Arts in Bucharest.

Please RSVP here.

Another East - Romanian Painting

Transportation to Rivaa Gallery: F Train to Roosevelt Island / Tram at 60th Street & Second Avenue

Event organized by The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York and UNARTE.
200 E 38th St, New York, NY 10016

Advertisement
Map
RSVP
RSVP for Another East: Romanian Painting
Romanian Cultural Institute
May 14, 2019

Thank you for your RSVP.

Romanian Cultural Institute will be in touch.

Subscribe

e-flux announcements are emailed press releases for art exhibitions from all over the world.

Agenda delivers news from galleries, art spaces, and publications, while Criticism publishes reviews of exhibitions and books.

Architecture announcements cover current architecture and design projects, symposia, exhibitions, and publications from all over the world.

Film announcements are newsletters about screenings, film festivals, and exhibitions of moving image.

Education announces academic employment opportunities, calls for applications, symposia, publications, exhibitions, and educational programs.

Sign up to receive information about events organized by e-flux at e-flux Screening Room, Bar Laika, or elsewhere.

I have read e-flux’s privacy policy and agree that e-flux may send me announcements to the email address entered above and that my data will be processed for this purpose in accordance with e-flux’s privacy policy*

Thank you for your interest in e-flux. Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.