Our first exhibition is dedicated to Maria Balea (born 1990) and George Crîngașu (born 1988), two young representatives of the School of Cluj (Romania), whose graduates include internationally renowned artists like Adrian Ghenie, Ciprian Mureșan and Hortensia Mi Kafchin. The overarching theme of their show is the reality of young people's lives sandwiched between a physical world marked by unprecedented uncertainties and a virtual parallel universe offering limitless possibilities and a fascinating – yet often deceptive – refuge.

 

Both artists seek beauty in this confusing kaleidoscope of worlds: Maria Balea through a romantically transfigured focus on remnants of nature untouched or abandoned by people; and George Crîngașu through an unconditional devotion to the graphic possibilities of the digital world in which beauty is often coupled to the twisting of natural laws, the physical impossibility of architectures and environments. However, danger always lurks behind both the retreat into a supposed state of nature and the loud kitsch of artificiality. Neither place is a safe haven, and you cannot drink from digital sources. At closer inspection, Crîngașu's Piranesi-like architectural structures grow reminiscent of medieval instruments of torture, and Balea's paintings reveal the absence of any shelter to take refuge from a brewing storm.