Iulian Bisericaru

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 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 →

Biography

Iulian Bisericaru (b. 1987) lives and works in Sibiu and Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He graduated from the Painting Department of the University of Arts and Design Cluj-Napoca (RO) and developed his PhD thesis on 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 on environmental issues, be it by depicting the remains of industrial society or by approaching the controversial topic of city planning and resource exploitation.

The artist was awarded a grant for an ongoing 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). His first artist book is published and launched in May 2022.

Solo Exhibitions

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

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

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

2016 ‘Wide Open Spaces’/Painting, Calina Gallery, curator Liviana Dan, Timișoara, Romania

2015 Influences, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2015 Usonia Into The Wild, Atelier Patru, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

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

2014 Meet the artist, The Ark, Bucharest, Romania

2012 Asphyxia, Casa Matei, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Group exhibitions

2023 The Cactus at the End of the World, Iulian Bisericaru & Dragoș Dogioiu, curator Raluca Oancea, Malmaison Studios, Bucharest, Romania

2023 Buget Zero și câțiva metri pătrați, curator Liviana Dan, Sibiu, Romania

2023 Utopia in the Real,Art Brussels

2022 Lights for Winter, Bendana-Pinel Art Contemporain, Paris, France

2022 Uncanny Landscapes, a dialogue with Aurora Kiraly at NADA Projects

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, SUR, curated by Luiza Texeira de Freitas

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, New York, United States

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

2019 Winter Celebration, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

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, with Anca Poterasu Gallery, Torino, Italy

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

2015 Double Agency, Cazarma Space – part of Art Encounters event curated Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacherm

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

2012 Startpoint Prize, Romania Victoria Art Center, Bucharest, Romania

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

2012 Girl Talk, Casa Matei Gallery, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

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

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

2007 Omul X, Future Gallery, Sibiu, Romania

Bibliography

2022 Artist catalogue

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

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Iulian Bisericaru

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Group exhibitions

Bibliography

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