2016 | Lateral ArtSpace | Group show

Portrait of my husband
floor based sculpture, aluminium and steel
2016
Exhibition view

Fete cu idei [Băieţi şi picturi], Lateral ArtSpace, Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj
10-30 June 2016

Curated by Delia Popa and Giles Eldridge
Artists: Liliana Basarab, Ioana Gheorghiu, Aurora Király, Delia Popa, Raluca Popa

Originating from an initial idea by the English born artist, Giles Eldridge and developed through an on-going conversation with the Romanian artist, Delia Popa, this Project is intended to present some vital aspects of contemporary art practice as they are being played out in Bucharest today and consider how this milieu is different from that of Cluj.

Broadly speaking, the differences could be characterised as follows: In Cluj there has been a well lauded recent history of predominantly male painters, based at Fabrica de Pensule acquiring international acclaim and commercial success. Whilst in Bucharest a distinctive feature is of women artists, typically not studio based and involved in a wide range of art practices that are transdisciplinary and fluid and include painting, drawing, photography, performance, dance and collaborations largely taking place outside of a commercial framework. Playfully, one might describe the situation like this: Cluj is about boys and painting. Bucharest is about girls with ideas.

The title of the project references two previous museum shows; Bad Girls at The New Museum of Contemporary Art, SoHo, New York City, 1994 and Good Girls, MNAC, Bucharest, 2013. It is an exercise in considering the persona and identity of individual artists alongside that of the two cities. It could also be seen as testing a hypothesis. At any event it should be considered as more of an artistic dialogue rather than a final curatorial thesis. The title format [Băieţi şi picturi] is meant to indicate a reference to the painting scene in Cluj.

Image copyright: Roland Vaczi, Lucian Indrei