Hello everyone, this blog will be about our current exhibition called “Young Artists, Young Friends, Accrochage 1” at our Munich show room.

The focus of the exhibition is on our young emerging artists most of them from Eastern Europe with the exception of two that are Italian and Austrian. They all specialise in different fields ranging from drawing to painting to sculpture to video art. All of them deserve to be better known and get more recognition.

During these challenging times it’s harder for them than ever before, that’s why I have chosen three artists to write about and I’m confident that they will pique your interest. Of course, I will happily welcome you to visit our show room as soon as the pandemic allows it.

The first artist I will talk about is Maria Bordeanu who was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1982. She graduated from the Art Highschool “Nicolae Tonitza” in 2001. Maria then studied at the National University of Arts in Bucharest and graduated from the Painting Department in 2005. In 2007 she obtained her Master’s Degree of Fine Arts in Painting, from the same University.
In 2006 she was awarded first prize at the Young Artists – Gala PRIMAVERA 2006, Bucharest.
Since 2011 Maria Bordeanu’s works are part of the Art in Embassies Collection, U.S. Department of State.

Maria’s inspiration for her works comes through her travels and the photographs she takes on her journeys. They include a variety of places like landscapes, museums, architecture, or everyday life. In this way she can perceive and feel the places in a deeper way and this process frequently leads her to a new project. When an idea is born she then develops a new series of art works.

Her work is realistic and therefore shows everyday life objects or scenes. She first started with film stills where she chose fragments and reinterpreted them, also with the help of digital processing. Maria’s more recent works are inspired by personal photographs that help her construct a story, as already mentioned. Her favourite media is oil, as she likes seeing how the works change with each successive layer giving the paintings a life of their own.

A project she spent a lot of time on was “Artificial Habitats” where plants and rocks were arranged in an idealised way. Maria juxtaposed artificial and natural elements which create a sense of unease as the arrangement below. This also refers to the topic of climate change.

Her “Deconstructed Spaces” project focuses on Cetate, our artists in residence place in Romania. Maria’s starting point is the real environment, then she keeps transforming it through the perceptions of her memory. The deconstructed landscapes also offer an alternate reality, painted in different ways, on various backgrounds, sometimes on multiple canvases or disparate views within the same painting.

In this series the shape of the canvas she used was a square, she considers it a symbol of stability in time. The landscape is fragmented and reconstructed. Maria wonders how the place looked like before or how it will look in the future. Through documenting via photographs, she could observe how the landscapes had changed after she returned to Cetate some years later.

Her current ongoing project is about reflections, where she explores daily life in a series of mirror-works. The artist began her paintings before the pandemic started, but now, they can also be seen as a reflection of isolation, of loneliness. The painted shapes in the water slowly change the elements of the sceneries from the original situation.

Maria also made this series as she was always drawn to the fluidity of the water and the images it creates.

She started working on round canvases at the beginning of the year, this made her want to explore more image types and different ways to paint. For the first time Maria began incorporating text into her new works. One of the round canvases has the Netflix message “Are you still watching?” painted on it. We all understand that this is an allusion to Netflix as the majority of the Western population uses this streaming service, especially now.

This should resonate within our society as we are dependent on technology in all its various forms, this need was strengthened through the current pandemic. Technology makes us forget the world around us. Are we even able to take a break from it? Maria explores all these viewpoints in her new project.

The second artist I’ll introduce is Petrică Stefan who was born in Resita, Romania in 1988 and is currently living in Timisoara. He graduated with an MFA degree in painting from the West University in Timisoara.

Since the beginning of his career Petrică’s works were quite abstract, even though he followed certain spatial rules he had imposed on himself and the way he created his paintings. He continuously and meticulously explored ways and methods of displaying matter in all its various forms.  

The paintings he created were initially infinite and chromatically diverse, they sometimes look like a snapshot of a macrocosm caught on a light-sensitive plate, which then reveals radiance and vibration of colour that look like tiny details of the galaxy.

Petrică’s art looks like a parallel dimension to our current universe. His striking colours are juxtaposed on repetitive parallel lines drawn on large-scale surfaces. The backgrounds of the paintings are always in light colours that remind us of the sky. He uses mixed media, acrylic or oil paint combined with drawing ink.

Petrică’s way of working has developed and changed over the past few years, his works are still abstract but much more geometrically organised, the floating matter is graciously intriguing. The forms look like enlarged little splotches of his older paintings.

Some of his recent works have pipe-like shapes inter-meshed with one another. The artist created networks out of a few of them, which open windows to the sky.

While other artworks also look like an optical illusion, they suggest a precise shape constructed by parallel drawn stripes.

Since 2016 Petrică has achieved three big scale wall paintings, during the residencies in Cetate, which can be found indoors and outdoors.

At the moment he seems to flirt with street art 😉 Look at him standing on the ladder in front of a building in Timisoara!

Petrică moves self-confidently in his personal, visual universe.

The third artist on my list for now is Simon Iurino. He is from South Tirol, Italy where he was born in Bozen in 1986.  

Simon graduated with a BA in 2006 from the University of Vienna, then he attended a Master Class in Object Sculpting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino, Italy from 2007-2008. In 2011 he obtained his Master’s degree from Central Saint Martins in London. From 2009-2015 he attended the Master Class in textual sculpture led by professor Heimo Zobernig in Vienna.

Simon is a very diverse artist who works with different media and in various formats.

Space always plays a central role in his work as it helps him connect his artworks to the surrounding area. He believes that his installations can never be separated from the places they are shown in, as they are always in relation to each other.
He artistically questions and tries to explore the relationships between sculpture, object, and architecture via his installations.   

Before Simon decides on any certain media, he has to feel connected to the space surrounding him. This will inspire him as to what kind of materials he will use and subsequently the artwork that will arise out of it. It is very important to choose and find the most coherent material for each concept he makes.

The artist sometimes incorporates the history of the material he uses into his works. At times it can be understood through the concept of the work or the given titles.

Simon has a strong preference for geometric, repetitive forms. The starting parameter of his artworks is the letter X, which he calls his “verbal pattern” that he developed over the years.

Simon Iurino won the PARALLEL VIENNA | Bildrecht YOUNG ARTIST Award. He was selected by the jury at the PARALLEL VIENNA 2020 as the winner among the exhibitors in the category ARTIST STATEMENTS or INTERVENTIONS – Solo Presentations. The prize includes a solo presentation in Bildraum 01 during the next PARALLEL VIENNA 2021 as well as a financial award.

I would like to end this blog by encouraging all young and aspiring artists to recognise their individual potential and honestly express it artistically.
The art market today is a like a bubble that can burst at any time. Consequently, it’s important to be doing your own thing without being too influenced by the current trends and fads. Individual positioning is essential to ensure an exponential career.

Should you be interested in more young artists, please have a look at the following two blogs:
https://arthotshot.com/kinetic-artist-stefan-radu-cretu/ and https://arthotshot.com/adina-mocanu/.

I wish this blog was inspirational and entertaining to you dear readers! Until next time!