Oana Coşug’s paintings and works on paper explore the relationship between the female body and its surroundings. Born in 1979 in Galați, Romania, Coşug studied painting at the National University of Arts in Bucharest. In 2005 she moved to Brussels with her then husband, the artist Philippe Vandenberg, and continued her studies at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts.

Every day for nearly two decades, Coşug has created watercolours and drawings that reflect her experiences with the people she encounters and the spaces she occupies. Viewed collectively, they become a visual journal, a means of organizing her thoughts and understanding the world around her. In her early works on paper, Coşug developed the themes that would come to define her practice: the relationship between male and female bodies, the unseen social pressures of urban life, and the porous boundary between body and landscape. In 2012, Coşug received First Prize at the International Biennial of Contemporary Drawing Namur, Belgium — a landmark moment that drew institutional attention to the importance of the medium within her practice.

In recent years, Coşug’s work has attracted renewed attention, resulting in group and solo exhibitions in Brussels, Ghent, Zurich, and Bucharest. Her latest paintings and drawings feature figures that merge with the landscape in a process that appears at once violent and symbiotic. Women sprout from vegetation, dissolve into puddles of water, or meld with the flesh of another body. At times, these forms appear to fragment entirely, blurring the line between gestural abstraction and landscape painting. These recent paintings and works on paper will be exhibited alongside a selection of her earlier works on paper in Body Clock, which opens in Paris and Bucharest in September. The exhibitions will feature a newly commissioned video work by Andrei Botnaru, in which the fluid lines of Coşug’s watercolours are transformed into distorted streaks of pixels, which rematerialise in a surrealist video sequence shot at a greenhouse in Iași, Romania.

Her practice is now entering prominent European public and private collections. Her work has been acquired by public institutions, such as Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Germany); Collection Oliver von Schulthess (Zurich, Switzerland), Krupa Art Collection (Wrocław, Poland), and private collections across Europe.

Solo Exhibitions

2026 (Uncoming) Body Click, curated by Jonah Goldman Kay, Au Passage, Paris, FR

2023 I am in the mood to dissolve in the sky, Anca Poterașu Gallery, Bucharest, RO 

2021 Here I sit still in silence, Galeria Uj Kriterion, Miercurea Ciuc

2019 25th International Contemporary Art Fair, 24-27 October, Zürich, Switzerland

2019 Au 34 6, Linkebeek, Belgium, curated by Pierre Martens

2018 Hidden – exhibition and book presentation, Artitude Gallery at Rivoli Building, Brussels, Belgium

2018 The Simultaneous Spaces of Absence, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2017 Le casier at ERG in Brussels, Belgium

2016 Art D&D, Open studio, Brussels, Belgium

2015 Landscape, Artitude Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2014 Drawings, ICR Tel Aviv, Israel

2013 Drawings exh. Oana COSUG and Anya-Belyat GIUNTA, d’YS Gallery,B

2012 Paintings / Drawings, Visual Art Museum, Galati, Romania

2010 Blue face, painting exhibition, Artsenzafine Gallery, Milan, Italy

2008 My shadow, painting exhibition, Artsenzafine Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2008 Another city, another life, Actionfields Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2007 Drawings, B-Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2004 ExPosition, Atelier35 Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2003 Painting exhibition, Simeza Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2003 Painting exhibition, Hanul cu Tei Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

1996 Painting exhibition, N.Tonitza Gallery, Barlad, Romania

Group exhibitions

2024 +6&Encore 12 at 346 Gallery, Linkebeek, BE

2024 Art Brussels 2024 Brussels, Belgium

2023 ARCO Contemporary Art Fair Lisbon

20232023 All important ideas must include the trees, the mountains, and the rivers, No Name Crative Projects, Paris, France

2023 I am in the mood to dissolve in the sky Oana Cosug & Yasmina Assbane, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest

2020 Drawing in lockdown, S.M.A.K. Belgium

2020 Virus Diary White Cuib, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2020 A Room of One’s Own, NADA New York Gallery Open, Harlem, New York, United States

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

2019 Disappearance, Artitude Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2018 Spin Cotton While the Moon is Bright, Anca Poterasu Gallery at Spinnerei Leipzig, Germany

2018 Kunstwedstrijd Abstracte schilderkunst, at Cultuurcentrum Zwaneeberg, Heist-op-de-Berg, Belgium

2017 From the infinite to indefinite, Rivoli Building, Brussels, Belgium

2017 Portaluri, Anca Poterasu Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2017 Disparilitas, at ‘100 Gallery’, Brussels, Belgium

2017 Colonia 21, National Library in Bucharest, Romania

2016 Art D&D, Hôtel de Maitre Art Déco, Brussels, Belgium

2015 Six artistes / Six desseins, Artitude Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2012 International Biennale of Contemporary Drawings in Namur, Belgium

2012 Canvas Collectie / Collection RTBF, BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium

2011 Temporary collection, exhibition organized by Frédéric Rolland at B-Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2009 Zennestraaat 17, Croxhapox Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

2008 Croxhapox Gallery, Gent, Belgium

2007 Studio Gallery by Art ‘Contest, Brussels, Belgium

2005 Young Colors, National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest, Romania

2005 Bistrita 2005, Apollo Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2004 Assemblage Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2004 Romanian Contemporary Art, Chisinau, Moldavia

2004 Painting Symposium of Bistrita, C.Baba Gallery, Bistrita, Romania

2003 Paintings exhibition, Caminul Artei Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2003 Lascar Viorel Biennial, Piatra Neamt, Romania

2003 Bucharest Annual Art Exhibition, Artis Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2002 Hanul cu Tei Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2002 Gheorghe Patrascu Biennial, Targoviste, Romania

2002 Ion Andreescu Biennial Buzau, Romania

2001 Unifest, Bucharest University, Bucharest, Romania

2001 Accente si amprente, Apollo Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

2000 Contemporary Art Show, Ceausescu Palace, Bucharest, Romania

2000 Tolerance underlined, History Museum, Bucharest, Romania

1999 Spring Accents, Apollo Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

Awards and Residencies

2003 – 2018 Artist residence Colonia 21 – Tescani, Romania

2015 – 2018 Artist in residence in Destelheide, Belgium

2014 Residence in Delta du Danube, Dunavatul de Jos, Romania

2012 Winners FIRST PRIZE of 1 // International Biennial of Contemporary Drawing Namur

2012 Belgium in ex aequo: Oana Cosug and Anya Belyat-Giunta

2012 Selected for CanvasCollectie/Collection RTBF, Wiels, Brussels, Belgium

2007 Selected for Art’Contest in Brussels, Belgium

2006 Selected and expose at B-Gallery, Centrale for Contemporary Art in Brussels, Belgium

2005 Residence Prometheus, Sf.Gheorghe, Danube Delta, Romania

2004 Residence Project Gallery Mie Lefever, Gent, Belgium

2003 The Creative Grand of the Romanian Artists Union, Bucharest, Romania

2000 A. Podoleanu Prize, Barlad, Romania