Blurred Is the New ID

Estopia Art Gallery, Bucharest, is pleased to invite you on Thursday, January 23rd, at 6.00 PM, at the opening of the exhibition Blurred Is the New ID. We are celebrating 1 year since the inauguration of the gallery, in an event focused on contemporary neo-figurative, as approached by 8 artists: Lucian Brumă, Otilia Cadar & Liviu Coman, Marius Fodor, Ada Muntean, Alexandru Nicoară, Sergiu Laslo and Szabó András.

The new sincerity, the photographic and hyperrealist figurative, the metaphysics of derisory, the dominance of grey, the poetry of raw everyday life: how many of these concepts, which underpinned the spectacular “return” of painting starting 2000, remain valid among the new generation of artists? What does remain, what has changed and what does today bring forward the new figurative in painting? In a world where visual and digital explosion, new media and pop art have changed the paradigm of communication and implicitly that of understanding art – what do young artists bring new to the horizon?

Blurred Is the New ID provides 8 possible answers and add a further question: how come artists today, as the ones included in this exhibition, choose to cover, hide, decompose, blur or even not represent the face?

A different gallery of portraits of our contemporary world is to arise from this show. Starting with the two faces, one warm and human, and the other, a sort of identikit of artificial intelligence – as they appear in Szabó András’s interpration. While for Sergiu Laslo, keeping face hidden is the key for the viewer to decipher messages beyond the characters’ gestures. The fluid body, whose identity borders are melting and de-materializing under the impact of a decadence, which threats to become the new code of contemporary life: such is our today’s portraiture as designed in Ada Muntean’s works. An oneiric, romantic air wraps up the mysterious female characters in Alexandru Nicoară’s works, as he simultaneously dares to revalue the role of landscape in his compositions, both in aesthetic and semantic terms. While for Marius Fodor, the realist – photographic approach gives him the opportunity to create a “narration in movement”, both in black and white and colour; Otilia Cadar & Liviu Coman build a luxurious story on faces and forms, which turn into a playing field for projections subject to multiple interpretations. Lucian Brumă, on the other hand, glues together sunny portions of life, in painterly fragments from where you are constantly expecting someone to raise their look.

***                                           ***

Lucian Brumă was born in 1976 in Bârlad. He lives and works in Bucharest. He studied Painting at the George Enescu National University of Arts in Iași, where he earned his BA and MA. He is currently a PhD candidate at the National University of Arts in Bucharest. He presented his works in solo shows, such as Testimonies of an Unlived Life, Borderline Art Space, Iași, in 2017; Think about the Box, Aparte Gallery, Iași, Samādhi, Nicolae Tonitza Galleries, Bârlad, in 2016 and Rules out of the Game, World Bank, Bucharest, in 2014. He participated in group shows at the annual ARTIST Art Salon, 2019; Drawing Salon, Accademia di Romania in Roma and National Contemporary Art Salon, MNaR, Bucharest, in 2018; Erotica, Pallady Gallery, Iași, in 2017, and Reality Levels, Aparte Gallery, Iași, 2015, among others.

Otilia Cadar & Liviu Coman have been working together as an artist duo since 2013.

Otilia Cadar was born in 1984 in Bucharest and earned her BA in 2007 and MA in 2009, both in Graphics, from the National University of Art in Bucharest. Among her recent solo shows, in Bucharest: BABA, Kube Musette, Swimming Flyer, Apollo 111 and Diary Windrows, Point, in 2017; Pericula Ludus, Galerie am Maxmonument, Munchen, in 2016, and NAP of the Earth, Art Yourself Gallery, Bucharest, în 2015. She participated in group shows, such as Contemporania, Art Yourself Gallery and Perspectives and Anatomy of Female Art, ARTHUB, Bucharest, in 2019; Mosaic: Portrayal of Diversity, Elite Art Gallery, in 2017; Intersection, Halele Carol, Bucharest, în 2015, among others.

Liviu Coman was born in 1984 and graduated from Politehnica University of Bucharest, Faculty of Electric Engineering. He worked as a DP Project Engineer and DCS Application Engineer for Yokogawa Romania, in Romania, the Netherlands and South Africa. Since 2013, he has been working together with Otilia Cadar in an experiment of integrating technical approach in contemporary art. Among the projects he has carried out as Art Engineer, Bucharest Art Week, Știrbei Palace, Bucharest, in 2017; Pericula Ludus, The Room by Seabam, Bucharest, in 2016, Azulejo, in the Vision of Romanian Artists, ICR Lisbon, and May ELEVATOR, Art Safari, Bucharest, in 2016.

 Marius Fodor was born in 1994 in Mediaș. He lives and works in Cluj-Napoca. He graduated from the University of Art and Design, where he earned his BA in 2017 and MA in 2019. The same year he was selected in the exhibition Young Blood. The Art of Your Time, curated by Mihai Zgondoiu at Art Safari, Bucharest, and in the project Expo Maraton, Galeria Casa Matei, Cluj-Napoca. He participated in group shows in Cluj-Napoca, at Painbrush Factory, Museum of Art and Centrul de Interes, where he was artist-in-residence in 2019.

 Ada Muntean was born in 1987 in Cluj-Napoca, where she lives and works. In 2009 she graduated in Graphics from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, where she earned her MA in 2011, while in 2019 she earned her PhD in Visual Arts. In 2015 she won an internship at Peckham Platform in London, and in 2016, at Plan B Gallery in Berlin. Her recent solo shows: Relativity, duo show with Andreea Anghel, Nano Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, Blackout.[Follow The White Rabbit], NEW NOW art space Frankfurt and Sabotage: Deconstructing The Unforeseen, Camera, Centrul de Interes Cluj-Napoca, in 2018. She participated in group shows and projects at the Museum of Art, Timișoara and Salone degli Incanti, Trieste, Italy, in 2018; striclty Herrmann, Vienna, Art Encounters, Timișoara, Launloc Gallery, Cluj-Napoca and ARTOPIA, Vienna, in 2017; Peckham Platform, London, Five Plus Art Gallery, Vienna, and Plan B Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, in 2016, among others.

Alexandru Nicoară was born in 1989 in Luduș. He lives and works in Cluj-Napoca. He graduated in Painting from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, where he earned his BA in 2011 and his MA in 2013. Since 2017 he is a PhD candidate in Visual Arts at the same university. In 2019 he has participated in group shows at the FISAD Art Festival, Torino, Italy, and at the exhibition Plein Air Centenar, Casa Matei Gallery, Cluj-Napoca. Among his solo shows, Mornings in the Wide Valley, UBB Gallery, 2018, and Still, Atelier Patru, Cluj-Napoca, in 2017.

Sergiu Laslo was born in 1993 in Cluj-Napoca, where he lives and works. He studied Painting at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca. He presented a first solo show at Estopia Art Gallery in Bucharest, in May 2019, followed by a secod solo show at Estopia Lugano, in November 2019. He participated in group shows such as, in 2018, Paintings and Jewelry, Wine Notes, Cluj; Rebellive Art/Conscious, A fashion-infused Art Zine, Budapest; Eu nu emit carbon, Halucinarium – Triaj creativ, Bucharest; Close Encounters of the Ninth Kind, City Art Space and Double Tree by Hilton Cluj. In 2017 he exhibited in Going East, ICR London; Bombastic Cultural Space and Workshop Launloc, Cluj; DIY (Do It Yourself) and Gara Mică Cultural Space, Cluj-Napoca.

Szabó András was born in 1980 in Târgu-Mureș, he lives and works in Cluj-Napoca. He graduated from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, where he earned his BA in 2003 and MA in 2005. With a highly original and personal technique, which consists in scratching the material he works with – a white surface painted in black –, he has carried out several solo shows such as Fragments from a Possible Reality, City Art Space, Double Tree By Hilton, in 2017, Gods and Monsters, Szabó András Studio, 2016, From Shadow to Light, MB – XL, Brussels, in 2015, and Waldorf, Varfok Gallery, Budapest, in 2012, as well as duo and group exhibitions in Romania and abroad. He has been artist-in-residence at KASZ International Steel Art Symposium, Kecskemét, Hungary, in 2018. His works are in private collections in Romania, Hungary, France, Belgium, Israel and Germany.

Curator: Irina Ungureanu