The Cluj Collective

It has been eighteen years since the esteemed curator and art historian Jane Neal curated Cluj Connection, an exhibition credited for identifying Cluj as a bonafide art movement characterised by serious work ethic, a dark sombre visual language and dry humour. Shortly after, the art world anointed a cohort of Romanian artists, such as the now familiar names Victor Man and Adrian Ghenie, whose works have been praised for their vigorous and prodigious take on haunting and historical subjects. One of the most exciting enigmas of recent years is how and why their art grandiosely took the art market, and a cohort of leading curators and collectors by storm? Growing up in the aftermath of the Romanian Revolution in 1989 and characterised by life in Post-Communist Romania, these artists – also referred to as the Cluj School – were celebrated for their evolving styles which resonated on an international scale without renouncing their own historical contexts. The artists presented in JD Malat Gallery’s latest group exhibition are similarly bound by the historical context of their generation. Aptly titled The Cluj Collective, this group of seven artists are indeed a collective born out of the historical Transylvanian capital of North-Western Romania, whose diverse painterly styles demonstrate the evolving thread of figurative painting inspired by the distinct culture of Cluj, and it’s beautiful to witness.

 

United by their educational background, artists Dragoș Bădiță (b.1987), Oana Fărcaș (b.1981), Botond Gagyi (b.1992), Cristian Lapusan (b.1976), Dan Maciuca (b.1979), Marcel Rusu (b. 1989) and Cătălin Tăvală (b. 1996) all graduated from the esteemed University of Arts and Design Cluj-Napoca, with an intense and critical focus on narrative and figurative painting. The paintings in this exhibition are about story telling. Like an Aesop Fable they are fictitious, useful to life and true to nature.

 

For more information, please access the press release and online catalogue via the links below.