CEALALTĂ FAȚĂ A LUMII
Opening | Tuesday, May 5, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 6 Tribunei Street, and from 7:00 p.m. at Brukenthal Palace, 4 Piața Mare
Dates | May 5 – 31, 2026
Venue | Museum of Contemporary Art of the Brukenthal National Museum, 6 Tribunei Street, and Brukenthal Palace, 4 Piața Mare, Sibiu, Romania
Curator | Liviana Dan
Co-curator | Alexandra Runcan
Artists | Ana Maria Micu, Ioana Olăhuț, Anca Bodea, Mirela Moscu, Ioana Iacob, Anca Brânzaș, Oana Năstăsache, Andrea Tivadar, Roxana Ajder, Ioana Tocoaie
The exhibition proposes a reflection on the place of painting in contemporary art and examines a possible feminine perspective within the context of artistic production that sprang from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca over the past two decades. The idea and the selection of artists were first introduced in the book with the same name, "Cealaltă față a lumii / The other face of the world", launched in 2024 by Hassium Cultural Association, edited by Anca Bodea and Ioana Olăhuț.
https://www.brukenthalmuseum.ro/
Opening | Tuesday, May 5, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 6 Tribunei Street, and from 7:00 p.m. at Brukenthal Palace, 4 Piața Mare
Dates | May 5 – 31, 2026
Venue | Museum of Contemporary Art of the Brukenthal National Museum, 6 Tribunei Street, and Brukenthal Palace, 4 Piața Mare, Sibiu, Romania
Curator | Liviana Dan
Co-curator | Alexandra Runcan
Artists | Ana Maria Micu, Ioana Olăhuț, Anca Bodea, Mirela Moscu, Ioana Iacob, Anca Brânzaș, Oana Năstăsache, Andrea Tivadar, Roxana Ajder, Ioana Tocoaie
The exhibition proposes a reflection on the place of painting in contemporary art and examines a possible feminine perspective within the context of artistic production that sprang from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca over the past two decades. The idea and the selection of artists were first introduced in the book with the same name, "Cealaltă față a lumii / The other face of the world", launched in 2024 by Hassium Cultural Association, edited by Anca Bodea and Ioana Olăhuț.
https://www.brukenthalmuseum.ro/
"/Abstract Expressionism, the New York School, German Neo-Expressionism, the Leipzig School, the Cluj School have few, if any, female artists./ But what should a female artist who enters one of these programs should look like, given the critical attention? To have the intellectual purity of Agnes Martin, to own the political power of Marlene Dumas and the super box-office hit of Jenny Saville and it still might not be enough in the eyes of the mega-brothers.
Linda Nochlin, Bonnie Mann, Cardy Korsmayer began to write about women artists, to define the role of women in art, to explain their position in history and in art history.
But before you use the arguments of theory, criticism, memory, identity, technology, gender, cyber-feminism, you have to understand what was different, how this feature evolved and how it remains connected to the world for all those art scenes that admired modernism but became post-modernist."
Dan, Liviana. "color - impasto - shade - and other essentials." In Cealaltă față a lumii / The other face of the world, pp. 180–183. Cluj: IDEA Design & Print Editură, 2023.
Linda Nochlin, Bonnie Mann, Cardy Korsmayer began to write about women artists, to define the role of women in art, to explain their position in history and in art history.
But before you use the arguments of theory, criticism, memory, identity, technology, gender, cyber-feminism, you have to understand what was different, how this feature evolved and how it remains connected to the world for all those art scenes that admired modernism but became post-modernist."
Dan, Liviana. "color - impasto - shade - and other essentials." In Cealaltă față a lumii / The other face of the world, pp. 180–183. Cluj: IDEA Design & Print Editură, 2023.
MEDIA COVERAGE
Cosmin Năsui, Expoziția „Cealaltă Față A Lumii” @ Muzeul De Artă Contemporană – Muzeul Național Brukenthal din Sibiu, May 4, 2026, modernism.ro
Dana A, „Cealaltă față a lumii”, la Muzeul Național Brukenthal: expoziție de pictură contemporană, semnată de artiste din Cluj-Napoca, 30 aprilie 2026, sibiu100.ro
Cosmin Năsui, Expoziția „Cealaltă Față A Lumii” @ Muzeul De Artă Contemporană – Muzeul Național Brukenthal din Sibiu, May 4, 2026, modernism.ro
Dana A, „Cealaltă față a lumii”, la Muzeul Național Brukenthal: expoziție de pictură contemporană, semnată de artiste din Cluj-Napoca, 30 aprilie 2026, sibiu100.ro
MY WORKS WITHIN THE PROJECT
While being an artist, I choose to also operate as a facilitator for plants. There is little specific domesticity depicted in these works. What is essential about them is that they are strictly scenes observed from my positioning within the space. The private sphere remains mostly behind me; I stand in the center, surrounded by the tools and gear required for production. These visual structures develop only when I deliberately pause to look at them. The act of painting serves as a factual testimony to this existing structure, documenting the functional overlap of plant and human life and needs.
Because these environments operate as closed systems, entropy is not passive; it requires an agent. Realist painting, with its demands for time and fidelity, becomes the mechanism for documenting this reality, validating specific acts of survival. Works such as "next occupant. ... Remain calm" (2025) depict the necessary, often devastating interventions, such as the culling of overgrown plants, required to sustain the finite ecosystem of the studio.
While being an artist, I choose to also operate as a facilitator for plants. There is little specific domesticity depicted in these works. What is essential about them is that they are strictly scenes observed from my positioning within the space. The private sphere remains mostly behind me; I stand in the center, surrounded by the tools and gear required for production. These visual structures develop only when I deliberately pause to look at them. The act of painting serves as a factual testimony to this existing structure, documenting the functional overlap of plant and human life and needs.
Because these environments operate as closed systems, entropy is not passive; it requires an agent. Realist painting, with its demands for time and fidelity, becomes the mechanism for documenting this reality, validating specific acts of survival. Works such as "next occupant. ... Remain calm" (2025) depict the necessary, often devastating interventions, such as the culling of overgrown plants, required to sustain the finite ecosystem of the studio.
