LOCUS NEMINIS I

[EN] The forests were in fact commonly referred to as the locus neminis, or “place of no one”*. Locus Neminis revives the theme of the forest as an itinerary and an absolute ideal, as an adventure in the unknown and lost paradise, as a return to the origins and nucleus of humanity, as a place of mystery and human aspirations.

What does one see vertically or laterally in a dense forest ? [To look at a tree and see not the leaves, but the space between]. The mute closure of foliage. The boundless oblivion of the dormant mind. A sudden illumination of nothingness. How to picture the sky to oneself in the aspect of a huge animated body: a body not seen but imagined as there beyond the treetops. (based on a citation from *Robert Pogue Harrison “Forests – The Shadows of Civilisation”, pag. 4)

By an internal industry and expansion, our body renews. The snake casts its slough, the caterpillar its wormy coat. The loon retires to solitary ponds to spend it. Our moulting season,[ like that of the animals] must be a crisis in our lives. [In search of a new body] (based on a citation from Henry David Thoreau, Walden – Economy, pg. 22)

The paintings Delirium / Pleasure and Flow of Zăercs are made over my older paintings. It is a recurrence in my artistic path  to paint over compositions that have been wrapped and finished in the past, transforming and destroying at the same time.

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[RO] Pădurile erau numite în mod obișnuit locus neminis, sau “locul nimănui”*.

“Locus Neminis” reia tema pădurii ca itinerariu și ideal absolut, ca aventură în necunoscut și paradis pierdut, ca întoarcere la origini și nucleu al umanității, ca lăcaș al misterului și al aspirațiilor umane.

Ce se vede privind în sus sau în jur într-o pădure densă? [Să te uiți la un copac și să vezi nu frunzele, ci spațiul dintre ele] Închiderea mută a frunzișului. Uitarea necuprinsă a minții latente. O iluminare bruscă a nimicului. Cum să imaginezi cerul pentru tine însuți, sub aspectul unui corp uriaș animat: un corp nevăzut, dar imaginat ca acolo dincolo de vârfurile copacilor.   (apud din *Robert Pogue Harrison “Pădurile – Umbrele civilizației”- pag. 4)

Printr-o lucrare internă și o expansiune, corpul se înnoiește. Șarpele își desprinde pielea, omida iese din stratul său de vierme. Cufundarul se retrage în iazuri solitare. Perioada noastră de năpârlire [ca şi cea a animalelor] ar trebui să fie o criză în viața noastră. [În căutarea unui nou corp].  ( apud din  Henry David Thoreau, “Walden” –pag. 22)

Picturile Delir / Plăcere și Flux de zercși sunt realizate peste picturi mai vechi ale mele. Este o recurență în parcursul meu artistic să pictez peste compoziții închegate și terminate în trecut, transformând și distrugând totodată.

 

‘Locus Neminis’ exhibition @ Kube Musette, Bucharest, 2017

Delir Plaisir, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 160 cm, 2017

‘Locus Neminis’ exhibition @ Kube Musette, 2017

hanging zăercs

Flow of zăercs, acrylic and digital print transferred on canvas, 210 x 170 cm, 2017

Nocturnal, mixed technique on canvas,

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Exhausted

In “Exhaustion” it is me  with my dog, at the countryside, during summer, asleep in the fields.

But what I feel that is conclusive is what Francis Bacon said in an interview:

“What I feel it is conclusive is that when you are painting a man sitting, just like this, in a room, or walking down the street,

almost all the people looking at the paintings seem to agree that they portray anything but a trivial or neutral situation

and that figure is involved in some sort of crisis – perhaps the idea of ​​an imminent disaster. ”

“Exhausted” is available for sale on Saatchi Online : http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Painting-Exhausted/43191/1854156/view

Topography of a Dog II

“Topography of a Dog II”, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm, 2013

“Sometimes, you feel like punching in the table and cry aloud: – Enough, let the time alone, time is intangible,

time should not be challenged! Is space not enough for you?

Space is human, in space you can frolic as much as you want, you can tumble,

you can roll over, you can jump from one star to another. But (…) do not touch the time! (Luigi Pirandello, excrept from “The Notebooks of Serafimo Gubio”, own translation into English)

Sibilants

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 !

During the last couple of years I struggled with an issue which may be concerning many young artists:

 WHAT SHALL I DO WITH ALL MY PAST SKETCHES,

DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS ?  

Many years ago the answer lied in the garbage,

but I realised one can never be certain whether

a tiny sketch is good at all, or extremely bad ?

       I invite you to see two of the series of works made from such diverse sketches : 

COLLAGES OF OLD SKETCHES

  MIGRATIONS

     It took years until I could ‘sift’ my past drawings, while keeping them all in storage for future reference. Having the tendency to refer only to the quality of  a drawing, to its perceptual intensity, I had forgotten the importance of the memories which gave birth to all these sorts of life sketches. Although I’m generally more than happy to throw any object whatsoever, it became impossible to throw bits of myself filtered through drawing.

MY STUDIO

At the end of August my new studio was partially finished.

There’s still more to be done-bought-constructed, but what’s most important is that I’ve started painting again.

A mud day

Antonio (grandson), Mihai (cousin), Liviu

Yesterday we went to The Berca Mud Volcanoes, which are a geological and botanical reservation located in the Berca commune, in the Buzău County in Romania.

A Dog’s Topography

I was away for a while, as I moved out of the city to a lovely house in the countryside, where there’s a whole team working to build me a great large workshop 🙂 So I’m back !

A Dog’s Topography

Red July

I wanted to share my thoughts on an artwork I made during February, “A Dog’s Topography”:
There is no void. There is no fullness. But there is a new substance which composes itself and decomposes, being reducible to the inner image, whose form is strictly its realisation. Every time another one. Without surrender, without omissions, without economy of forms. And last but not least, no guide posts.

In relation to this, and the artwork ” Red July”, curator Kristen T Woodward, Professor of Art at Albright College in Reading, wrote on the artists2artists social network, where I’ve been recently featured. I wanted to share her words with you as in the end of her text she writes in a very concise way what I am looking for in my recent painting — also related to those “guide posts” I mentioned above.

“This is a very engaging piece- teetering between structured landscape and expressive abstraction. The painting seems to partially implode into itself, as the linear vertical striations cross the figure-ground illusion. The color provokes a strong sensory, emotional response. The red in “Red July” Is a saturated red-pink, crossed with a pure green, evoking the ripest watermelon of summer. While there is a pale blue in the sky, it too is tinged with the spreading pinkish hue. The blue outlined shapes rectangles suggest screens leaning across the house structure- and they do in fact succeed in letting “air” into the piece.

The varying degree of abstraction is interesting throughout your works, as you vacillate between comprehensive figuration and works without, as you say, “guideposts”. Perhaps this is why I enjoy this piece so much- it seems to pull into two different and opposing directions. “

    Thank you for reading and don’t forget comments are always welcomed !