Cecilia Menilescu: The Seas of my Soul, by Roberta Nagy, Ist year ITA

"The Seas of My Soul”, is a personal exhibition by the artist Cecilia Melinescu held open at The Museum of Art of Cluj-Napoca, 3-15 April,  Wednesday to Sunday inclusive, from 10 am to 5 pm. Cecilia is a journalist and producer at TVR but she is also a painter who confessed that she studied Turner a lot. Through this exhibition the artist presents  the public with a series of works that combine not only the theme of the tumultuous seas but also their diverse and colourful world. The existence of a balance between the brutal waves and their beauty brings not only a sense of depth but also a picture of a world of contrasts. The sea, the living monster always on the move, is represented by the artist in various situations, where emphasis is often placed not only on mechanics and dynamics, but also on a colour dimension.

We see in these works a special attention to the detail - generically speaking, a watermarking of great finesse and sensitivity. The waves seem not to crack, but to adorn the sand with a lace of  foam. Beyond the visual impact of the image, reaching the shores is a conquest, a victory, a tumultuous passage to a quiet,  deserved peace. Many of the works depict the beach ands the sand - a sand that burns and cools, and hugs the waves in a "welcome home" greeting. There is a detail that inevitably draws attention not only through the chromatics but also  through the message and the state that it creates: the sky. It is often a dark sky, a sky that either bears  the signs of the storm, inspiring anxiety, or induce a state of prostration at sunrise; the sky  is the beginning and the end, and the omega, defined by the artist through a conglomeration of clouds that do not seem threatening but free the sky  only in slits, large enough to leave the light  triumph and, in combination with it, suggesting  hope and positivism. Besides, the artist herself defines her works as an "invitation to meaning", so the viewer is welcomed to build his/her own.

MUSES, Personal Painting Exhibition, by Carolina Beu, 1st year ITA

A personal show of Alexandra Andone’s “MUSES” cycle was on display last week at the Casino Center for Urban Culture in the Central Park. A student and professional in the field of Brand Creation and Communication, she discovered a passion for painting in the studio of Nicolae Maniu. In the four years she spent there, she studied the oil painting technique, and has since had group and personal exhibitions in Romania, including two with her mentor. The Cluj-based artist’s works are easily recognisable by the strong, vivid colours used and the female figures in fresh themes.

MUSES is about the female soul, in the artist’s words. She also adds that “The woman is represented through her interior qualities and characteristics, and those that don’t necessarily pertain to the exterior aspects. The images represent the bare personifications of the female essences depicted in each painting.”

The exhibition was open to the public between the 18th and 24th of March at the Casino Center for Urban Culture.

                           

The Curiosities of Sophie Hummingbird About The Love Between a Flower And a Bird

Lights on Romania, by Patricia Suciu, Ist yer ITA

Cluj-Napoca is, yet again, amazing. During the whole month of December, the city is filled with light artworks. With the help of “Lights on Romania”, we will be enjoying these neon or plastic applications all through the center of the city, in very various places. “Lights on Romania” is a private initiative meant to bring light artworks into the public space. Some of the most well known parts of this project are the light bulbs web hanging in the whole Museum Square that truly capture the Christmas vibe, The Endless Light column at Samsara Foodhouse which is a beautiful recourse to Brancusi’s art and work, the installation on the Elisabeth bridge that says “I miss you”, that is appreciated even by the most rageful drivers that stop, stare and smile at it, and the moon inside the Piarist Church which is the ultimate uplifting experience for the individual and the soul. So, forget about the cold wind and go be mesmerized about these unique creations that will make you really happy, warm and fuzzy on the inside.

    

   

Five easy pieces, by Madalina Matei, Ist year ITA

There’s a small exhibition in town, hosted by White Cuib gallery, also a small blank space right in the heart of Cluj-Napoca. The exhibition is called “Five easy pieces”, which is also the name of a movie from the 70’s. The name of the movie comes from the piano exercises that the main character does in his childhood. There a huge gap between what the pianist in the movie could have become and what he does in the present. The artist decided to take a step back from the art space, a few years ago, but that’s the only resemblance between him and the pianist. His name is Cristi Pogăcean and he studied sculpture at the Art and Design University in Cluj-Napoca. There are five art pieces in the exhibition, as you might have guessed. They’re apparently simple objects but they stick with you because of their contemporary aesthetics and the fact that they are recognizable symbols at an universal level. I recommend you go see them for yourself, from 6 to 9 pm, until the 28^th of November.

Beauty. Performance in a painting, by Andreea Bruma, Ist year ITA

                             

choreography and concept: Ruxandra Enache
sound and light design: Cătălin Filip
producer: Simina Corlat


“Beauty. Performance in a painting” is a contemporary dance show in which the sole protagonist, Ruxandra Enache, paints a very vivid story about what it means to be a woman in the contemporary consumerist society. She manages to do that by using the graceful movements of her body, and a little bit of acting. As expected, the main theme of this show is the woman, and her struggles as she is trying to reach the unattainable beauty standards. We can say that by doing so, she is entrusting her self-worth to the people around her, drawing happiness from the compliments regarding her looks. The human female learns, at least intuitively, from an early age that the prettier she is the more she is socially accepted.

The show is full of metaphors and hidden messages, as it presents various hypostases in which today’s woman seeks, within herself and the people she encounters along her way, trust, confirmation and love. It exemplifies the exciting and long-lasting, profoundly feminine rituals of beauty.
This performance addresses a very important issue: accepting yourself as you are, flaws and all. Everyone should treasure themselves for who they are and not give their appearance too much thought, because,  after all, your heart should be the most beautiful thing about yourself.


Cultural event co-funded by the National Cultural Fund Administration, carried out with the support of the City Hall and the Local Council Cluj-Napoca.

Sticlografii (Glass-o-Graphs) by Alexandra Mureşan by Roberta Nagy,ITA,1st year

Alexandra Mureşan is a visual artist and a  PhD student at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca where she studied Ceramics. Her creations  have been on display in a lot of exhibitions all over the country but also abroad.

This exhibition of mesmerizing glass art was organized at the cultural café Espresso Studio (at street Baba Novac 27), the café of International Festival of Contemporary Ceramics. The opening was on 25 October at 7 pm, but the exhibition can be visited until December 1^st every day, during the café’s program.

Intermediate between us and the world, glass objects have become quite scarce today and the artist Alexandra Mureşan breaks this absence by melting her glass into visible tangible ideas and objects which embellish our everyday life. Unfortunately, the dual nature of glass– both its beauty and fragility – makes it vulnerable to breakage. If you own or collect glass art sculpture you may find yourself in need of glass restoration or repair.

There are more techniques used for glass making such as glass blowing which uses a combination of sand and soda lime, along with colouring agents, to produce a raw material, which will be melted together to form molten glass. Another technique is hot sculpting which is used after a solid metal rod gathers the molten glass from the furnace; the glass is then shaped with special tools. The hot sculpting process tends to make much larger solid pieces of glass art. Alexandra Muresan joins the select group of European and American masters of this art.

News from Bianca Vitcu ITA-2018 SOTTOBOSCO

 I would like to introduce you to a special exhibit, meant to celebrate the 70th anniversary  of the great master Ioan Sbarciu, that happens as we speak in our city. It is called SOTTOBOSCO. Already sounds mystical, doesn’t it? At least to me it does. 
  This project actually sums up three exhibitions, each of them using as a title an expression connected to the forest. The master Ioan Sbâciu,  the iIalian painter Enzo Cucchi, and their special guest Markus Lüpertz, worked together at one of the parts named “The murmur of the forest and of the wind”, which is actually my favorite, and have created some absolutely wonderful, huge paintings in dark tones and hues, with a frenetic mix of colors, amazing dynamics of rhythm, introducing you to the enchanting world of the bosco.

   The other two exhibitions represent the work of two different generations of artists, one set of them born in the 70-80's,the other one in the late 80's, mid 90's. Some of the works have the same theme as the main exhibit, the forest, other works having a different topic, from childhood memories to adult  ones.

  I truly recommend it to anyone seeking a deeper fountain to hydrate our dry, urbanized environment of our minds.