Cutting Edge III, by Nicoleta Trif, 1st year Design

This exhibition is the result of the 3rd edition of Cutting Edge International Art Camp that took place in Belis, in between the 10th and the 20th of July 2016, the group show with the same name brings together young and well-known artists in a visual formula that starts form the idea of observing the environment the landscape of Belis. The exhibition it will take place at Art Museum in Cluj Napoca on the 14^th  of December at 10 am. The works were made under the guidance of four specialists in visual arts: Ioan Sbarciu, Ciurdarescu Andrei, Christofilogiannis Dionisis, Eva Mitala.

 

In between abstraction and figurative painting, the works exhibited reflect a broad spectrum of approaches of the landscape theme, a challenging theme for technique and compositional exercises and also for demonstrations of traditional mediums endeavors. It is not surprising that painting takes up the most space of exhibition, being seconded by drawing and graphic art techniques .

Cluj Design Days, by Nicoleta Trif ,1st year Design

 “Cluj Design Days” is a complex annual event, which takes up the topics of industrial design, clothing design and the design of accessories, held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

“Cluj Design Days” comes with a new Christmas edition, the theme of this year’s Christmas edition is “Dreaming of a white Christmas”. The opening will take place on the 16^th of December, at 7 PM at “Casa TIFF” and it will end on the 18^th of December.

This event is dedicated to students and they can also sign up with their own projects which can be put up for sale. All of the things that are being sold are handmade products that the designers made.

The relaxed and cozy feel of this event is given by the fact that the designers are always there and people can ask them about their products and the process of their creations.

Solo Exhibition Silvia Inselvini_ Eadem Mutata Resurgo, by Ioana Morosan, I Design

On the 4^th of November started the Solo Exhibition Silvia Inselvini_ Eadem Mutata Resurgo. The selection of works produced by Silvia are displayed in IAGA Contemporary Art Gallery and in the recently opened studio: IAGA is NOW Studio, situated in No.8 Horea Street, Cluj-Napoca. The exhibition can be visited until the 1^st of December, every day except Monday, from 10 am to 7 pm.

The Italian  young Artist Silvia Inselvini  was born in Brescia in 1986 and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts “SantaGiulia” in Brescia. In her works she mainly focuses on the research on time and temporality.

The exhibition hosted by IAGA Contemporary Art Gallery is articulated in fifteen or so works based on the deep research of the origin of sense, of time, of self. The project developed by Silvia in the last few years divides into different categories: the installation like ‘La strada’ (‘The Road’), ‘Le spade’ (‘The Swords’) and ‘Respiri’ (‘Breaths’), the video that has an integrating role in the process of the artistic creation, the mechanical repetition of the gesture found in the work ‘Non dormo la notte (‘I Don’t Sleep at Night’)’.

The exhibition's title is a Latin phrase that literally means ‘Although changed, I arise the same’. The phrase synthesize the concepts that lead the artist to create, such as: the automatism as for example in the work ‘Non  dormo la notte’, the process of creation found in ‘Notturno 1,2,3,4,5,6,7’, ‘Errori 2’ and ‘Errori 3’, the investigation on the origin of things in work ‘Cellule’,  and the knowledge of suspended time found in work ‘Kalachakra’,  a term used by Vajrayana Buddhists which translates to wheel of time or "time-cycles".

The entire exhibition can undoubtedly be defined as contemporary considering the fact that it is a detailed representation of what modern humans reflect on. If you haven’t visited it yet and it seems appealing to you, there are  three days left to do it at IAGA Contemporary Art Gallery.

Exhibition of Ioana Olăhuț: Fear, pain, hunger, by Alexandra Burtiuc

Ioana Olăhuț is a Romanian painter, who`s now a teacher of the painting department of the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca. She had exhibitions in the country and abroad too, with works that had as a theme  metamorphosis. Her style is a combination of Expressionism and Surrealism, in technique and themes, but what makes her works unique is her vision about the subjects that she chooses.

             Her recent exhibition is titled Fear, pain, hunger, which reminds us of the Expressionist most common themes. The exhibition is a collection of works from 2012 to 2016 which come after a period of black and white painting.

The images she had created made me feel like I was in a horror movie: the colors, the atmosphere, the subject, even the fact that the exhibition took place in the basement of the museum. And that feeling made me realize the power that those images have.

             The contrast that is most used for these paintings is a complementary one, between yellow and violet. It is said that this contrast is used for expressing the most dramatic situations and experiences, because it is the one that, to be balanced, needs more violet than yellow and pure violet is a lot darker than the pure yellow, making the painting darker just because of  the contrast. But the black that she used made everything even more intense and dramatic. There are paintings that are almost black and white like Dali and Galinacea, and there are, on the other side, paintings that are very colorful like Inward directed mortido II. The non-finito is very present in her work, being that invisible thing that guides the eyes of the viewers in a certain point of the painting. In some works this non-finito is a part where the color is dripping, in others is the part that is almost decorative or intentionally less worked.

The figures that express her concepts and ideas are humans, animals or even food--the exhibition is called hunger after all. But when it comes to people, the interest was not portraying them or studying the human body, expressions or proportions. In a lot of paintings the faces of the people  are actually missing or just sketched. For example, in the work named Two monks in front of my window there are two figures of men, with faces unclear, and that detail makes the image creepier than the subject itself. Or in the painting named The Maid where it is clear that it is not an anatomical study of the female body, nor a study of her expression, it is about  virginity as a subject.

The painting that I liked the most, was the one named Chicken`s Nightmare. This one is about a little chicken smashed by giant strawberries. The contrast is the same, violet and yellow, the dripping is there too. But leaving aside the fact that strawberries are my favorite, I find interesting the subject itself. She really imagined what the nightmare of a chicken might be and she concluded that this is the most relevant possibility. I find this one amusing, a dark humor actually, but it still made me smile just because I imagined it to be real.

The exhibition was opened on 27^th April, and in case you want to see it, it will be open till 15^th May, between 10 am to 5 pm, at the Art Museum in Cluj-Napoca.

Jarret at Seoul Spring 2016 collection , by Alexandra Burtiu

Jarret is a label established by Lee Ji Yeon in 2009 in South Korea, which now has opened a store in New York. The designer creates garments based on the relationship between women and men, that`s why she gets inspired by menswear and always has both genders in every collection that she creates. This label is focused on creating garments for on-duty and off-duty wear at the same time. It can be said that Lee Ji Yeon is creating garments that, even if are inspired from menswear, are mostly for women who want to express their femininity wherever they go.

The collection that was presented at Seoul Fashion Week, spring/summer 2016, was inspired by the Snow White story. The make-up evoked the description of Snow White: lips red as blood, hair black as ebony, and the white skin that the model had, exactly as the character from the story. The colors that dominated were pure white, black, intense red and a little dark blue for evoking masculinity. There are no accessories and the shoes are flat, a common thing used in the fashion from that side of the world. The patterns and the prints that were used were actually abstract drawings of apples and letters of the apple word, English and Korean version (sagwa). And if the apples or the prints aren`t there, it will be the color red to remind you that it is about apples.

             The predominant material that was used was veil, but there were cotton and silk as well. The see-trough material was in a clear contrast with the others materials, especially with the silk which is shinny, and always used in the collection made by Asian designers. The veil is considered by the majority of people to be a material which evokes femininity, but for Ji Yeon it is not like that. She uses this material for menswear as well, a thing that, in my opinion, is refreshing. Why shouldn`t a man wear veil? Because it is not manly? But what does make a man manly? This collection gives us the answer: the attitude and the physique, nothing else.

             Even if Ji Yeon gets inspired by the Snow White story for this collection, how she tells the story is a bit odd. I saw the collection before I knew the inspiration source of it, and for me it was about Adam and Eve story. But if you compare the two stories they are quite similar. The woman who eats an apple, which she shouldn`t, and gets “poisoned” and almost “died”. And there was the man by her side when she made a mistake. And like in the stories, even if the collection is about men too, the women's presence  dominates the scene. She is the one that you, as a viewer, see more.  And the fact that there is a clear contrast between black and white, colors that in Asian belief are the colors for the Yin and Yang concept, colors that reflect the good and the bad of the world, is a sign that this collection is not just about a story that originally wasn`t written for kids, it is about something more. And the presence of the color red can be a reminder of the blood as a penitence for what the woman did, not just a reminder for the red apples from Snow White, apples that can be green and yellow as well.

             But after all, who actually knows what is inside of an artist mind?

            

Bibliography:

1.http://jarret-official.com/about.html

2.http://www.mutzine.me/features/seoul-fashion-week-spring-summer-2016-day-4-the-studio-k-big-park-r-shemiste-jarret-supercomma-b

3.http://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/seoul-spring-2016/jarret#review

Vlad Olariu`s exhibition – Glory Holes, by Monica Dănilă

Beginning on April 14, the Museum of Art in Cluj-Napoca will open an exhibition entitled Glory Holes, where sculptures by Vlad Olariu will be on display until the 15th of May 2016.

The title might sound ironic, but it includes one of the elements that his exhibit`s works have in common: holes. The pieces  are made of polystyrene, covered in a cold grey paint to give the impression of hard concrete, damaged by rough and aimless holes. Yet these works are not only covered in holes, they also depict  human figures, in heroic postures, recalling Greek and Roman sculptures; and some portray contemporary events while some are just abstract.

 They call this a sculpture exhibition, but the works are done on a flat surface, more like a relief, so it does not hold the same characteristics as the typical museum sculpture. The pieces are playful, arranged in various ways: on the wall, leaning on the wall, up on old, repainted barrels and trash cans.

 The artist constructed a glaring connection between the artworks and the other objects present in the exhibition (old barrels, trash cans, a plant etc), which were painted in bright colours, mainly red. It was an unconventional approach.

Vlad Olariu is a young artist, a graduate of the sculpture department of Art and Design University of Cluj-Napoca, being one of the most productive and active sculptors in Cluj-Napoca in the last decade.

Bibliography:

http://www.macluj.ro/vlad-olariu.html 

The Spring Campaign at MNAC – The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, by Monica Dănilă

 The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest opened this 20th of April the spring-autumn 2016 campaign with 6 new exhibitions. The season will end on the 6th of October, a period in which MNAC will organize other related events, such as meetings with artists, debates, workshops, concerts, theatricals.

 Going through to the new glass wing of the Parliament House, Konrad Smoleński`s kinetic installation Dizzy Spells is exhibited on the ground floor. The installation is composed of two inflatable figures, which are supposed to look fun, but they form a sinister atmosphere because of their impression of collapse and dark tones.

 At the first floor, Forms through time, the future of nostalgia is a selection of works brought together from the Deutsche Telekom collection, which concentrates significant names of the past four decades of art produced in Central, South-Eastern, and Eastern Europe. Some of the artists who exhibit are Nilbar Güres, Petrit Halilaj, Vladimir Houdek, Pravdoliub Ivanov, Ali Kazma, Šejla Kamerić, Lesia Khomenko, Genti Korini, Eva Kotátková, Zofia Kulik, Vlado Martek, Radenko Milak, Sükran Moral, Ciprian Mureşan, Vlad Nancă, Ioana Nemeș, Paulina Ołowska etc.

 The second floor is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the Dada centennial, a melancholic space, filled with the impossibility of the same experience. There  drawings by Paul Păun and Victor Brauner, manuscripts written by Tristan Tzara, Ion Vinea, B. Fundoianu, old magazines like Unu, Urmuz are shown.

 Romanian cities in decline or Shrinking cities is an event on the third floor related to architecture because shrinking cities is a global phenomenon referring the demographic, economic, social and cultural decay of the industrial cities built in the twentieth century. Petrila is the city used for the study case, a city that Ilinca Paun and Tudor Constantinescu studied for years. We can rightfully say this is an encyclopedic exhibition.

 On the last floor, is the exhibition The Second Law from the cycle The white dot and The black cube, shows two distinct themes: the documentation of the Furry community (people who spend their time dressing up in stuffed animals costumes) and the photographic re-enactment of the important moments in the modern history of South Korea, Suk Kuhn Oh conceived.

Left: Carmen Dobre-Hametner, Kashjew & Fjordwolf; Right: Suk-Kuhn Oh, The Text Book (Chulsoo & Younghee)

Paul Păun, Figurative drawing

Bibliography:

http://www.observatorcultural.ro/articol/campania-de-primavara-la-mnac/

http://veiozaarte.ro/de-citit-2/insert/program-expozitional-mnac.html

Manifesta 11, by Vlad Dobrițan

    
  Manifesta is the biennial of contemporary art that seeks to investigate and reflect on emerging developments in contemporary art made and set within a European context since 1990. Since its first edition(1996, Rotterdam), Manifesta sought to keep itself from the dominant artistic centres of Europe, instead seeking emerging centres for the mapping of a new cultural topography.

The 11th Manifesta will be held in Zurich, a town that has a very long history of artistic and intellectual liberalism. Today, Zurich is one of the most economically and technologically advanced cities in the world and with the rich and rapidly evolving urban setting will provide Manifesta 11 with a socially, politically and artistically significant trajectory for the coming years.

The Chief Curator will be the German artist Christian Jankowski, who’s best known for his artistic actions and media artworks in which he makes use of film, video and photography, but also painting and installation. His work consists of performative interactions between himself and non-art professionals (the world of contemporary art and the world outside the art). This procedure lends his work its populist appeal. Jankowski’s work can be seen both as a reflection, deconstruction, and a critique of a society based on spectacle. In his view, art has turned into a show, and as a result has undermined its critical potential.

Taking the Chief Curator’s view into account, combined with the host city – Zurich, known for its artistic and intellectual liberalism--  we might say that Manifesta 11 involves unpredictable outcomes and risks, and as usual – will embrace the criticism.

Manifesta 11 will open on  June11, and with the preparations near the end, we can only wait for the biennial to open its gates to see, if not in person, at least images from one of the Europe’s most important art exhibition.                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                       

THIS IS NOT A COOKBOOK!, by Ana Crețiu

 THIS IS NOT A COOKBOOK! is the title of the new exhibition of the Visual Kontakt gallery, opening on the 8th of April, that showcases a part of the collection of books published and produced by PogoBooks since its establishment in 2010. The concept of the Berlin-based independent publisher is to suggest an understanding of the art book as space for the creation and exhibition of a work in its own right: "We believe in a future printed on paper, and conceive the printed artwork as a unique art form."

For the past five years, PogoBooks published art books, zines, and editions with an emphasis on photography, drawing and "contemporary nonsense".  PogoBooks understands itself as part of a long and rich tradition of similar DIY projects and self-publishers. This includes offering publications at low costs to make them accessible for everyone. In this way, PogoBooks has already managed to publish over 100 titles.

The Exhibition is divided into 3 parts and a "Reading-Room". The first part is called "The Xerox Room" and shows early self-produced zines by PogoBooks in an installation of black and white Xerox prints. All zines and prints were printed on the Xerox machine that PogoBooks has been using since early 2010.

second part, the "Photobooks Sequences" shows a selection of the latest hardcover and paperback productions by PogoBooks. The focus in this room is on the sequencing and editing of the Photobooks.

The "Risograph Books by Claudio Pogo" part concludes the exhibition by showing artworks and publications by Claudio Pogo printed on a risograph stencil printer. The risograph (or riso) is a printing machine that makes screen-printing and photocopying meet halfway.

Claudio Pfeifer aka Claudio Pogo, Berlin-based artist, founder of the publishing house, bookmaker and publisher works with mixed media, photography, riso, Xerox and screen printing. After studying photography and fine arts, he worked as a cinematographer, was the co-founder of the art-collective and label naive super, and has been running the PogoBooks publishing house since 2010.

Visitors are welcomed until the last day of April 2016.

Rebranding the MOCCA, by Ana Crețiu

Once called the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art (MOCCA), the new Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada will open its doors on May 2, 2017. The museum will take up five floors in an industrial high-rise.

 The opening will coincide with Canada’s 150th anniversary and the museum will house internationally-inclusive exhibitions taking the year 2000 as a start date for its collection. MOCCA have said that the museum will be based on the idea of the ‘agora’, a public space that should encourage an exchange of ideas and debate.

A statement has been published on the official site of the museum, announcing that : "There’s a call for a new type of museum. One that’s open to wider demographic and socio-political environments. One that embodies diversity, cultural crossbreeding, new technologies, and the disappearance of silos in artistic disciplines". We can clearly see the way MOCCA choose to enroll in the rising trend of the new museology. This is an updated version of the classical science of museum, one that focuses on the public rather than the content itself and all the cool museums are doing it.

 The museum has planned the opening of a custom-made building that will add 23,000 square meters to its inaugural venue, and scheduled to open in 2020.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada plans to hold three exhibitions a year to be accompanied by other events. The museum’s inaugural exhibition, Odyssey 2040, will run from May – August 2017.

QUE VIVA PICASSO Graphics and book illustration, by Xenia Tinca

The exhibition Que viva Picasso! Graphics and book illustration containing  works and documentary materials belonging to art collector Thomas Emmerling takes place at The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca.The opening was held on March 30th  at  the first floor of the Bánffy Palace, the headquarter of the museum.

The curatorial concept was developed by Thomas Emmerling and Dan Breaz  and it highlights Picasso's special ability to tackle in an original manner a significant number of masterpieces, myths of art and themes of universal  literature.

The exhibition which opened at the Art Museum Cluj-Napoca covers a period from 1916 to 1961, especially highlighting the period from the late 1950s and early 1960s by some of the most fascinating cycles of his graphic work like Don Quixote, De mémoire d'homme, Les Menines et la vie, the posters Congres National du mouvement de la Paix and Les Menines.

The exhibition highlights a concern in the work of  Pablo Picasso for  processing great problems of creation and the special ability of Pablo Picasso to broaden the artistic sphere through innovative language and critical thinking, which is fundamental values ​​for the development of modern art.

As a final conclusion, it is worth going and taking a look.

Sources:

http://www.macluj.ro/que-viva-picasso.html

http://ziuadecj.realitatea.net/cultura/que-viva-picasso-grafica-si-ilustratie-de-carte--146102.html

Rembrandt’s famous Portrait of Catrina Hoogsaet now at National Museum Wales, by Xenia Tinca

One of Rembrandt`s finest paintings,the portrait of Catrina Hoogsaet will be publicly displayed starting  with 5th April 2016 at Welsh Museum in the Dutch gallery and the public will be able to view the artwork for free.

The 17th-century painting is worth an estimated £35 million and can be seen three years from now on.

It was also said that Penrhyn Settled Estate,the previous owner of Portrait of Catrina Hoogsaet, is donating £10,000 to fund an educational programme for the display of the portrait.

The work was hanging at Penrhyn Castle in  North Wales since 1860 until last year and it was sold privately to an anonymous collector.

The Art Fund planned to buy the Rembrandt painting for National Museum Cardiff, but on 26th October,Sotheby's contacted them saying that the licence application was being withdrawn to keep the portrait in the United Kingdom and also said that unless system improvements it is not possible to make a change in that matter.

In 2025 it is possible to the owner to be entitled to reapply because in ten years from now would not be any tax advantages in a sale to a public gallery and the loan of the painting to such an important museum could also add to its financial value.

The owner of the portrait of Catrina Hoogsaet is "very happy to be able to share the enjoyment of this great painting with the public by lending it to the National Museum of Wales."

As well,General Director of National Museum Wales,David Anderson says that "This is a very special work of art, which has great meaning and importance for Wales’ heritage. The painting came to Wales in the 1860s and is an example, not only of money but of the cultural wealth generated by the great industrial age in Wales."

In conclusion, the display of one of the most important paintings  of Rembrandt is a very important fact for the museum, and it is also important to the public that it can see the artwork for three years completely free of charge.

Sources:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/rembrandt-portrait-worth-35m-displayed-11138525

http://theartnewspaper.com/news/museums/rembrandt-s-portrait-of-catrina-hooghsaet-to-go-on-view-in-wales/

Kaleidoscop, by Vlad Dobrițan

Café Bizare -- the story of The Velvet Underground & Nico with Andy Warhol, by Vlad Dobrițan

Zaha Hadid - '' The Queen of curves '', by Gabriel Buturka

October 31, 1950- March 31, 2016

  World-renowned architect Zaha Hadid died Thursday at the age of 65. The British-Iraqi architect had a heart attack while being treated for bronchitis at a Miami hospital.

   Zaha Mohammad Hadid was born Oct. 31, 1950, in Baghdad. Her father was a wealthy businessman, a prominent person in a progressive wing of Iraqi politics and a minister of finance before the regime of Saddam Hussein.

    Hadid was allowed to design her bedroom as a child and decided to become an architect when she was 11. She received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the American University in Beirut, then moved to London to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

By the time she graduated in 1977, she had studied with such renowned architects as Bernard Tschumi, Daniel Libeskind and Rem Koolhaas.

   She opened an architecture studio in London in 1979.

Hadid established herself as a great architect by winning high-profile cultural commissions and was bolstered by architecture honors like her induction into the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 2012. She went by “Zaha,” enjoying first-name-only celebrity brand name status, even beyond design circles. Brands and celebrities lined up to collaborate with Hadid: Chanel, Adidas (with Pharrell Williams), jewelers Swarovski and Georg Jensen, Moleskine.

  Hadid received her career-defining prize, the 2004 Pritzker, at the relatively young age of 53 despite only having a small body of built work. The accompanying headline of the official announcement—”Zaha Hadid Becomes the First Woman to Receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize”—signaled the tenor of the media coverage to follow.

Her company ZHA Architects said: “It is with great sadness that Zaha Hadid Architects have confirmed that Dame Zaha Hadid, died suddenly in Miami in the early hours of this morning (Thursday).She had contracted bronchitis earlier this week and suffered a sudden heart attack while being treated in hospital.”

Al Wakrah Stadium Qatar

Vitra fire station Germany

Heydar Aliev cultural center Baku

Abu Dhabi Arts Center

Beijing Centre

Que Viva Picasso Exhibition in Cluj Napoca , by Gabriel Buturka

 

  The exhibition "Que viva Picasso" will be hosted by the Museum of Art in Cluj Napoca, from March 30 to May 1, 2016.

The curatorial concept developed by Thomas Emmerling and Dan Breaz highlights Picasso's special ability to take in an original way a significant number of masterpieces, myths of arts and themes of literature.

The graphic work of Pablo Picasso, sufficiently valuable to include among the great creations of universal art, approached constantly in an original manner a large number of topics related to mythology, figures of wives and mistresses,  erotic themes, topics of the Spanish gold century or book illustrations.

The exhibition which opens at the Museum of Art in Cluj-Napoca covers through its selection, the entire 1916-1961 period, but especially highlights the range in the late 1950s and early 1960s by some of the most fascinating cycles of his work graphics: De mémoire d'homme, Don Quixote, Les Menines et la vie, Toros y Toreros, L'espace et la Flûte respectively and posters Les Menines for the National Congress du mouvement de la Paix.

The order of presenting these cycles provides a chronological picture of the development and consistent work created by the artist through a continuous diversification of graphic techniques.

 Que viva Picasso! The graphics and the book illustrations highlight a particular concern in the work of Pablo Picasso processing great problems of creation. This stage of interpretation was made known especially after the middle of the twentieth century. In this period we witness the height of analytical and interpretive spirit of Pablo Picasso, which caused him to engage in a creative way by then less present in his work. Between 1954 and 1960, he conducted a series of works that remembers topics from famous works of art, such as Women in Algeria (Eugène Delacroix), Las Meninas (Diego Velázquez) Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Édouard Manet). Through its new artistic vision of this period, Pablo Picasso search  to reveal existential truths complementary, but different from the inspiration source.

The exhibition highlights Pablo Picasso's special ability to broaden the artistic sphere through  innovative language and critical thinking, which are fundamental values  for the development of modern art.