Codruța Cernea uses painting as the ideal medium to exercise possibilities and to reveal hidden aspects of her own existence. Her works have a profound meditative atmosphere and often capture private moments, reflecting the underlying feeling of solitude increasingly present in the contemporary human experience. The observer's viewpoint, nostalgic scenarios about the future, the individual experience as a subtle mirror of collective transformations, the landscape, human nature with its contradictory emotional needs are some of the themes explored by the artist in her distinct and ever-changing pictorial universe. There is a fluid continuity in each of her series motivated by personal narratives and exploration of the extraordinary-normal world that is always surrounding us, both inside and outside. She builds strange and misterious realms, with symbolically charged elements and views from timeless spaces, where humans live symbiotically with their natural environment or in a constant longing for it.
b. 1979. in Târgu-Mureș, Romania
lives and works in Bucharest, Romania
EDUCATION
2008 - 2010. MFA Painting, National University of Arts, Bucharest
2005 - 2008. BA Painting, National University of Arts, Bucharest
SOLO/DUO EXHIBITIONS
2023. This Will Feel Like A Strange and Warm Embrace, duo cu Roberta Curcă, The H Gallery, Bucharest
2021. An Invincible Summer, Mobius Gallery, Bucharest
2021. Paradise of Lost Desires, Mobius Gallery, Bucharest
2019. Future Nostalgia, Mobius Gallery, Bucharest
2018. The Rough Aura of Experience, Cărturești Carusel, Bucharest
2016. It Is All True, Because I Painted It, K’arte Gallery, Târgu-Mureș
2016. Float, Glide, Fly, H'art Gallery, Bucharest
2016. No Other Time, No Other Place, Atelier am Eck, Düsseldorf
2012. Together Alone, atelier 030202, Bucharest
2011. Young Romanian Artists. Hand-stitched Portraits, 26 Gallery, Bucharest
2009. I Wonder What You're Thinking, MORA Gallery, Bucharest
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023. Your Germs Get Jet Lagged, Too, Zina Project Space, Cluj
2023. DIACRONIA, curated by Marian Pălie, The Turkish Bath, during Romanian Creative Week, Iași
2023. The Color of Sound, curated by Carola Chișiu and Cristian Vechiu, Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest
2023. Every News Is A Hand-Painted Story, Laborna Gallery, Bucharest
2022. Les Femmes du Feu, curated by Thale Fastvold, Sector 1 Gallery, Bucharest
2022. Why Have There Been No Great Eastern Women Artists?, curated by Eszter Csillag for ANS AZURA
2021. C.S.A Clubul Sportiv al Artelor, Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest
2020. Out of the Blue, Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest
2020. Maybe, for Sure, Laborna Gallery, Bucharest
2019. Fair Maidens, Museum of Recent Art, Bucharest
2017. 100 Years of Art in Masterpieces: Going East, Romanian Cultural Institute, London
2017. Mogodorf 10x10, Atelier am Eck, Düsseldorf
2016. Departing in the Way of Art: Daniel Ștefănică, collector, ARCUB, Bucharest
2016. Memory Leaks - NAG Retrospect, ARCUB, Bucharest
2016. Beyond the Lines – Ten Artists in-between Discoveries, curated by Erwin Kessler, ARCUB, Bucharest
2016. Mogodorf 10x10, Mogoșoaia Palace
2016. The Artist at 30, ARCUB, Bucharest
2015. Laborna & Friends – Work in Progress II, Laborna Gallery, Bucharest
2015. Auch Gestern war Heute, Ausstellungshalle Schulstraße, Frankfurt / Petra Nostheide-Eycke Gallery, Düsseldorf / Romanian Cultural Institute, Berlin
2014. 11172014 Project, ArtYourself Gallery, Bucharest
2013. BOLD, Pop Up Gallery, Bucharest
2013. Finish It, atelier 030202, Bucharest
2013. Interieur-Exterieur, Ion Mincu House, Bucharest
2012. DRAWING, Victoria Art Center, Bucharest
2011. New Figurative, Victoria Art Center, Bucharest
2011. Molcom tare, factor92 Gallery, Bucharest
2011. The Silk Exhibition: Presence, Affinity & Loss, LC Foundation, Bucharest
2011. Figure In. Figure Out, LC Foundation, Bucharest
2010. Zoomania.ro, MNAC, Bucharest
2009. DE SE NU?, D Gallery, Bucharest
INTERVIEWS/ESSAYS
[RO&EN] About LES FEMMES DU FEU exhibition at Sector 1 Gallery on Propagarta, 2022 [RO] [EN]
[RO] Tușe nostalgic-futuriste, fantastice și idealiste în pictura Codruței Cernea, interview by Manuela Zipiși for #210 Igloo magazine, 2022
[RO] Pe Bune #52: Codruța Cernea, a podcast by DoR magazine, hosted by Andreea Vrabie, 2019
[RO] Sînt atentă la balanța dintre premeditare și accident, interview by Ana Maria Sandu in DILEMA Veche about Future Nostalgia exhibition, 2019
[RO] Optimism simbolic, Dan Popescu, about Float, glide, fly exhibition, 2016
[EN] Codruța Cernea - No Other Time, No Other Place, the re:art, 2016
[EN] Codruța Cernea - 11172014 interview, the re:art, 2014
AWARDS/RESIDENCIES
2021. „Dă-te mare!” Art Prize offered by Museum of Recent Art
2016. Artist Residency in the City of Düsseldorf with the support of “Brâncovan Palaces” Cultural Center Mogoșoaia and Kulturamt Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, Germany
2013. Round Forest Residency, offered by K'ARTE Association, Reghin, Romania
2013. Shortlisted for Strabag Artaward International
2011. Tescani Painting Residency organized by ”George Enescu” National Museum, Bacău, Romania
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
THE COLOR OF SOUND / exhibition catalogue / Curators: Carola Chișiu & Cristian Vechiu / Museum of Recent Art & Vellant Publishing, 2023
AN INVINCIBLE SUMMER / an extensive monograph featuring paintings from 2008-2021 with an essay by Erwin Kessler / published by Mobius Gallery and Kontakt Association / Master Print Super Offset, Bucharest, 2021
C.S.A. Clubul Sportiv al Artelor / exhibition catalogue / Museum of Recent Art & Vellant Publishing, 2021
OUT OF THE BLUE! / exhibition catalogue / Museum of Recent Art & Vellant Publishing, 2020
FAIR MAIDENS. The Feminine Ideal in Romanian Art, from Nicolae Grigorescu to Ion Grigorescu / Curators: Ioana Șerban, Erwin Kessler / Vellant Publishing, Bucharest, 2019
MOGODORF 10x10 / Curator: Erwin Kessler / Catalogue for the anniversary exhibition of the artists exchange program between Kulturamt Düsseldorf and Mogoșoaia Palace, 2016
AUCH GESTERN WAR HEUTE, Works from Daniel Ștefănică Collection / Concept: Erwin Kessler / ICR Berlin, 2015
Snapshot Romania. Contemporary Artists from Romania / Curator: Claudio Scorretti / Fabrica Publishing, Italy, 2013