Petru Lucaci’s Redemptive "Diptych / Monochrome Materialities" at RCI’s Brâncuși Gallery

A versatile painter with a cerebral outlook and expressive touch, Petru Lucaci is hailed as a powerhouse of contemporary Romanian artistic scene. The revered professor of the University of the Arts in Bucharest and the long-time president of Romania’s Union of Fine Artists crosses the Atlantic for his biggest American project in years, revealing an effort of self-reinvention and adaptation to a visual photo-realistic mentality predominant today and a desire to go beyond the purely aesthetic.

The exhibition is accompanied by a presentation offered by the Romanian sociologist, writer, teacher and feminist activist, Laura Grünberg.

"Diptych / Monochrome Materialities", hosted by RCI’s Brâncuși Gallery, is Petru Lucaci's follow-up to two remarkable projects, "Noctumbre" and "Clarobscur. Beyond Wikipedia", and underlines the artist’s energetic style as well as his preference for unexpected twists of wonder, surprise, and the paradoxical. The assured execution of objects made in various mediums, from painting and digital printing to drawings with charcoal and photography, alludes to effects of trauma, deformation, and dismemberment. Although implying a hellish reality, they also conjure a sense of unlikely transcendence and healing force, which reframe the artistic experience in almost theological terms.

"All this process of developing the project gave me the chance to go beyond the area of strictly plastic concerns and to embed in my works concepts of philosophical, social, symbolic nature, related to burning, ashes, penance, mourning, hell, etc. It made me think of 'Satan's Fire', Hell and Suffering, but also of the 'sexuality of fire' mentioned by Bachelard in Psychoanalysis of Fire. I thought of the Christian vision of the purifying hell of evil, but also of ashes as a sign of penance and mourning in the Bible. I tried to transfer all these reflections to my works with the intention of enrich the range of meanings incorporated in the plastic work.” - Petru Lucaci

Diptych/ Monochrome Materialities

Brâncuși Gallery, RCI New York

May 26 – July 1, 2022

Opening Reception: May 26 | 7-9 PM 

Artist Talk: May 26 | 7:30 PM