21 Mar 2013

Anca Bodea: Persona at 418 Contemporary Art Gallery, Bucharest

418 Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Anca Bodea`s personal exhibition Anca Bodea - Persona on the 14th of March 2013.

In her works the artist expresses the states of mind of her generation by whole body portraits at real size, often 'broken' in the half. The fragments are put into an undefined, suggested space. The Sitters seem to be suspended in a state of waiting, a sense of resignation to fate. The precision of the drawing, the details of tissue textures and the sometimes strong coloration are interestingly combined with elements of 'non finito'. Another theme in Anca Bodea's work is the home interior; details focused and enlarged become a subject of their own. Through her special sense for illumination and texture she creates an intense and mysterious atmosphere, clues of an untold story.

In her latest works Bodea crafts intensely personal paintings that evoke a delight in and sense of enjoyment in materials, of downy pillows, warm daylight, cold glass, silken shirts and crackly leather. Aside from the importance of enjoyment and touch there are falls, folds and give in fabric that betray the shapes of those who once engaged with them. Sliding between absence and presence, what is there and not there, certain objects bear the traces of those who have recently interacted with them. And once these objects, spaces and scenarios are painted and expressed prior emotional events become animated once more.
Here painting is a sort of maternity or bearing par excellence, a series of offerings, a giving of signification. The hand of the artist allows an object to be understood, touched, taken and borne.

Anca Bodea was born 1982 in Cluj, Romania. She studied at the Art and Design University in Cluj and graduated from the Painting Department in 2007 with magna cum laude. In 2003 she received an Erasmus grant for one year at the' Institute des Beaux Arts 'in Liege, Belgium. Anca was awarded the 'Vasile Parvan scholarship' from 2006-2008 at the Accademia di Romania in Rome. In 2011 the artist achieved an Internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice. Anca Bodea's works are part of the Art in Embassies Collection, U.S. Department of State.

Victoria Wynne-Jones - doctoral candidate at the Department of Art History, University of Auckland