Black Market by Tudor Oltean, by Ana Crețiu, 2nd year ITA

                  - one of May's greatest art exhibitions -

Hosted by Launloc (55, Racovita St., open May 26-May 31), the world created by Tudor Oltean is governed by its own laws. Student of UAD's Ceramics, Glass & Metal Department, Tudor creates a system that brings into discussion the unspoken aspects of illegal trait, creating objects that, in our opinion, can be best described as having a "subtle monumentality". With an interesting materiality and an unforgettable chromatic signature, each piece tells a different story, united by the idea of a field of activities which affect society in negative ways, yet are kept under the rug. Art trafficking, ivory trafficking, organ trafficking or even human trafficking are among the artist's concerns.

The world build  by the artist revolves around the mantra of  "creating a world governed by its own laws, where violence becomes universal desire, a world backed up by its own complex economy that is continuously and aggressively developed" (artist's statement). This promise is actually delivered to the public, because the feeling one has when entering the exhibition is indeed that of entering the space of a fully organized organic system.

The two main rooms of the gallery where the exhibition takes place manage to somehow be different yet governed by the same unity stated before. A crucial aspect of this diversity is played by the experiments conducted using different art manifestations. Thus, besides ceramics, we were able to encounter various paintings or even engravings. Their unity  comes firstly from the specific shade of black used by the artist. Black, the color of darkness, of the night, the color of crime, of the unknown, and of the underground. Every piece of Tudor Oltean's exhibitions wears the black grey-ish coat of the organized crime's world.

Among the exhibits stands out a group of sculptural ceramic objects whose non-figurative shapes embody the project's concept with reference to specific cases. With the matter of organ trafficking in mind, for example, the artist takes the shape of a kidney and formally abstracts it until a non-representative object emerges, emptied of the original shape yet filled with meaning.

Tudor Oltean's Black Market is without doubt one of the highlights of the year's art exhibitions, scoring high points in regard to the idea, as well as the executions and also the presentation. The young artist's work is something we are looking forward to encountering again.

photo credits Galeria Launloc