Iulian Bisericaru

b. 1987
Iulian Bisericaru lives and works in Sibiu, Romania. He graduated from the Painting Department of the University of Arts and Design Cluj-Napoca, Romania and developed his PhD thesis around the relationship between architecture and painting, with a critical overview of the ecological ideology. Iulian Bisericaru’s artworks offer a somehow neglected or hidden perspective on aspects of contemporary society, that the human eye willingly avoids.
Ironic and playful at the same time, Iulian Bisericaru invites the beholder to take a  position towards environmental issues, be it by depicting the remains of industrial society or by approaching the controversial topic of city planning and resource exploitation. His artist book with texts by Liviana Dan, Marie Maertens and Cristina Stoenescu was launched in May 2022, with a solo show curated by Marie Maertens at Anca Poterasu Gallery in Bucharest. The artist was awarded a grant  for an virtual artistic residency organized by the European Alliance of Art Academies through Akademie der Künste, Berlin in 2022. During February – May 2019 Iulian Bisericaru attended the residency Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and two years earlier he took part in the International Summer Residency in Aschersleben. In 2012 he was nominated for Start Point Prize and he also received the Expomaraton Award. In 2017 his work “Diebenkorn Background” (2016) was featured in the Italian journal La Lettura – Corriere dela Sera (July, 2017). 

“In his work, Iulian Bisericaru is wondering what do these mutations of the city-scape tell about a society. How is a city or a community mirrored in those choices, and how far do these reflections ripple in time?”  Bendana | Pinel Art Contemporain

Iulian Bisericaru, Serendipity, 2021
Iulian Bisericaru, Nature's Revival, 2022

Iulian Bisericaru has been drawing and painting continuously, since childhood. While his early works usually depict houses and landscapes, his first major painting evokes a panoramic view over an architectural ensemble. ”I started painting industrial landscapes from very early on, in bright colours, acknowledging in painterly gestures an impulse for strong contrasts and accentuated brushstrokes. For me, this type of representation requires an engaged and radical attitude facing the post-1989 context in Romania. I spent my childhood on the outskirts of Sibiu, a considerably large Transilvanian city, that still carried on the memory of some formerly well-known factories and industrial buildings. Their architecture had become familiar to me and I longed to explore through them my fascination towards textures. I cannot tell how much of my initial reflections have survived to this day, yet I know that ecology and the post-industrial landscapes have always been a rich source of inspiration for me.”

The early works of the artist, from around 2012, let a sense of nostalgia transpire through, captured between two historical times. The paintings are made on large canvases, sometimes two metres tall and wide. By focusing on the few still functioning industrial areas, otherwise geographically marginal, the artist confronts the remnants of the past and the uncertainties of the future. The dynamic amplitude of his brushstrokes is accompanied by multiple perspectives in his composition, collaging various fragments with oil on canvas, reminiscent of the cubist movement.

Iulian Bisericaru works with photographs, sketches and collages to establish a narrative and a memorable dynamic for the viewer. By altering and skewing perspectives, the artist is reinterpreting the established art history canon, leading to a plastic exercise that keeps developing throughout his career. Within Bisericaru’s paintings, the background opposes the form, and concerning the spatial representation, there is a clear distance between the foreground and secondary perspectives. Interested in the study of anthropic environments and the way that humans intervene in nature, Iulian Bisericaru integrates elements of abandoned structures and details of mere architectural glimpses.

...remnants of the past and uncertainties of the future​ →
...remnants of the past and uncertainties of the future​ →
Iulian Bisericaru, Create my own island, 2021
Iulian Bisericaru, Kamma, 2021
Iulian Bisericaru, Martingana, 2021

Iulian Bisericaru (b. 1987) lives and works in Sibiu, Romania. He graduated from the Painting Department of the University of Arts and Design Cluj-Napoca (RO) and developed his PhD thesis around the relationship between architecture and painting, with a critical overview of the ecological ideology. Iulian Bisericaru’s artworks offer a somehow neglected or hidden perspective on aspects of contemporary society, that the human eye willingly avoids.

His artist book with texts by Liviana Dan, Marie Maertens and Cristina Stoenescu was launched in May 2022, with a solo show curated by
Marie Maertens at Anca Poterasu Gallery in Bucharest. The artist was awarded a grant for an virtual artistic residency organized by the European Alliance of Art Academies through Akademie der Künste, Berlin in 2022. During February – May 2019 Iulian Bisericaru attended the residency Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and two years earlier he took part in the International Summer Residency in Aschersleben. In 2012 he was nominated for Start Point Prize and he also received the Expomaraton Award. In 2017 his work “Diebenkorn Background” (2016) was featured in the Italian journal La Lettura – Corriere dela Sera (July, 2017).

Solo Exhibitions

2023     May we reconstruct what has been lost, second edition, recontextualization of The Gate of Sibiu International Marathon, HEI – House of Europe Institutes, Bastion 3, Galeria 3, curator Iris Ordean, Timisoara, Romania

2023      May we reconstruct what has been lost, recontextualization of The Gate of Sibiu International Marathon, PAV Sibiu, curator Iris Ordean, Sibiu, Romania

2023      Public intervention, The Gate of Sibiu International Marathon, Central Square, curator Iris Ordean and Cristina Kiru, Sibiu, Romania

2023      The Cactus at the End of the World in collaboration with Dragos Dogioiu, Open Doors at Malmaison Studios, curator Raluca Oancea Nestor, Bucuresti, Romania

2022      Akademie der Kunste artistic residency, European Alliance of Art Academies, Berlin, Germany

2022      Serendipity and artist-book launch Sibiu, curator Liviana Dan, Spatiul NonStop, Sibiu, Romania

2022      Zoom in, Zoom out and artist-book launch Bucuresti, curator Marie Maertens (texts by Liviana Dan, Marie Maertens, Cristina Stoenescu), Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucuresti, Romania

2019      Green Mirror, Bendana-Pinel Art Contemporain, Paris, France

2019      The City in the Distance, Spinnerei Leipzig, Germany

2018      The Place for Standing Still, Ierimonti Gallery, New York, United States of America

2017      The Distance Between Two Solitary Objects, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania, curator Cristina Stoenescu

2016      Wide Open Spaces, Calina Gallery, curator Liviana Dan, Timisoara, Romania

2015       Influences, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania, curator Ioana Mendeal

2015       Usonia Into The Wild, Atelier Patru, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, curator Laura – Angela Ogruţan –Praţa

2014       The Backyard, Bucharest Biennale 6 paralel event and special event for the White Night of Galleries, Anca Poterasu Gallery, curator Irina Toma, Bucharest, Romania

2014        Meet the artist, The Ark, Bucharest, Romania

2012        Asphyxia, ExpoMaraton Casa Matei, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

 

Group exhibitions

2024       RAD Art Fair 2024, Bucharest, Romania

2024       NADA New York 2024, New York, United States of America

2024       Art Brussels 2024, Brussels, Belgium

2023       Blue Sun. Conversations on art, science and ecology, National Museum Timisoara, curator Anja Luckenkemper, Timisoara, Romania

2023       La Rosu, Mielul Alb Sibiu, Romania

2023       Buget Zero si Cativa Metri Patrati – Interventia 2, curator Liviana Dan, Sibiu, Romania

2023       Utopia in the Real – a dialogue with Anetta Mona Chisa at Art Brussels, Belgium

2023       Buget Zero si Cativa Metri Patrati, curator Liviana Dan, Sibiu, Romania

2023       Lights for Winter, Bendana-Pinel Art Contemporain, Paris, France

2022       Uncanny Landscapes a dialogue with Aurora Kiraly at NADA Projects, Miami, United States of America

2022       Mielu’ Alb pe Intuneric, event under the aegis of N.A.G., Mielu’ Alb, Sibiu, Romania

2022       Dialogue with Iulian Bisericaru and Alessandro Brighetti, Mexic, Zsona MACO, curator Luiza Texeira de Freitas, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexic

2020       United We Rise, Bendana-Pinel Art Contemporain, Paris, France

2020       In Midst of the Worst, The Best of Times, Litost Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic

2020       A Room of One’s Own, NADA Gallery Week, Harlem, CTG Collective; Danny Baez, New York, United States of America

2019       In The Eye of The Storm, Anca Poterasu Gallery, curator Cristina Stoenescu, Bucharest, Romania

2019       Winter Celebration, Anca Poterasu Gallery, curator Cristina Stoenescu, Bucharest, Romania

2019       RE:START, The Art Museum in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, curator Horia Avram

2017       The Map is Not the Territory, The Romanian Cultural Institute, Lisbon, Portugal

2017       Aschersleben Artistic Residency, Aschersleben, Germany

2016       Uncanny Landscapes, Artissima Art Fair, Torino, Italy

2016       Spinnerei Galleries – Winter opening, Leipzig, Germany

2016       Expo Maraton RECALL, Presentation of winning artists from 2011-2015, University of Art and Design of Cluj-Napoca in collaboration with the National Museum of Art, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2016       Re: Fresh, Paul Sima Gallery, event under the aegis of University of Fine Arts, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2016       Extension.RO – Romanian painters, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, Russia

2015       System error, The National Museum of Art, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, curators Magda Grzybowska, Łukasz Huculakşi Karolina Szymanowska

2015       Double Agency, Cazarma Space – collateral event of Art Encounters Biennial, curator Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacherm, Timisoara, Romania

2015        The Superheroes Beyond the Carpathians, Vienna Contemporary Fair, Austria

2012        Startpoint Prize, Romania VictoriaArt Center, Bucharest, Romania

2012        Expotransilvania, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, event under the aegis of University of Fine Arts, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2012        Girl Talk, Casa Matei Gallery, curator Vlad Comsa, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2009       Mirionima Gallery, Macerata, Marche, Italia, event in the Erasmus scholarship under the aegis of Accademia di Belle Arti Macerata, Italia

2009       Del Fuorni Gallery, Macerata, Italia, event in the Erasmus scholarship under the aegis of Accademia di BelleArti Macerata, Italia

2007       Omul, X Future Gallery, Sibiu, Romania

 

Bibliography

2021       Artist catalogue, “FANTASTIC CONTRUCTION OR PRODUCTIVE FANTASY” texte de Marie Maertens, Liviana Dan, Cristina Stoenescu ISBN: 979-973-0-32310-B

2017       La Lettura – Corriere dela Sera, Newspaper cover

2016       Extension.ro, exhibition catalogue (group exhibition), Triumph Gallery, Moscow

2016       Blad Systemu/ System Error, exhibition catalogue (group exhibition), The Eugeniusz GeppertAcademy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, 2016

Other Exhibited Artists

Anetta Mona Chişa
→ Anetta Mona Chişa
Aurora Király
→ Aurora Király
Belu-Simion Făinaru
→ Belu-Simion Făinaru
Decebal Scriba
→ Decebal Scriba
Doina Simionescu
→ Doina Simionescu
Dragoș Bădiță
→ Dragoș Bădiță
Ioana Cîrlig
→ Ioana Cîrlig
Iosif Király
→ Iosif Király
Iulian Bisericaru
→ Iulian Bisericaru
kinema ikon
→ kinema ikon
Matei Bejenaru
→ Matei Bejenaru
Megan Dominescu
→ Megan Dominescu
Oana Coșug
→ Oana Coșug
Orit Ishay
→ Orit Ishay
Sebastian Hosu
→ Sebastian Hosu
Yasmina Assbane
→ Yasmina Assbane

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