Art Safari Love Edition’s Line-up: A new international collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, London

Art Safari Bucharest, now in its 12th edition, collaborates with art Romanian and international museums as well as with private collectors, to create extensive retrospective exhibitions aimed to recovery of heritage values. The Art Safari Love Edition summer season will take place from June 30 to September 10 at Dacia-Romania Palace on Lipscani Street and will present 4 exhibitions of classic and contemporary Romanian art along with prestigious international art.

“Art Safari summer season will be about love! Surely the art installations and the numerous tales from „Love Stories: Portraits, Passion & Partnership”, with famous couples throughout history, adventures, and secrets, will captivate our public. We also have a very good representation of the Romanian Supercontemporary art in Dacia-Romania Palace: a battle between nymphs and zombies in the vision of two young artists: Ondine and Baraka”, Ioana Ciocan, CEO of Art Safari and Commissioner of Romania at the Venice Art Biennale.

Love Stories: Portraits, Passion & Partnership, curator: Lucy Peltz, exhibition organized in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery, London

Love is in the air at Dacia-Romania Palace. Portraits of famous couples such as Victoria and David Beckham, or John Lennon and Yoko Ono from the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, will be exhibited in the heart of Bucharest. The renowned London museum holds the most extensive collection of portraits in the world, featuring some of the most well-known personalities.

“From the sixteenth century to the present day, portraiture has been closely bound up with ideas of love and desire, and with the social recognition of relationships. Portraits provide visual records of love and kinship, are used to memorialise dead or absent lovers, and have often been given as love tokens. Love and relationships thus form an enduring theme within the tradition of portraiture. This is a theme that will be explored in Love Stories, through a selection of key works from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London”, Lucy Peltz, curator of „Love Stories. Portraits, Passion & Partnership”, National Portrait Gallery.

Constantin Artachino (1870 – 1954), curated by Elena Olariu, exhibition organized in partnership with the Bucharest City Museum

A prominent figure in Romanian history, Artachino is considered a master of Romanian Orientalism, with a strong connection to the region of Dobrogea. He gained recognition during the interwar period for his silky brushwork, characterized by clear and elegant lines, marked by balance and harmony. Due to his family’s origins (the Artachi family from the Marmara Sea, Ottoman Empire), he traveled throughout the Balkans and became one of the most skilled portraitists of the region.

He studied at the School of Fine Arts, where he was a student of Theodor Aman, and continued his studies in Paris at the Julian Academy, where he was colleague with Nicolae Vermont and Ștefan Luchian, with whom he formed artistic groups. Artachino worked in the village of Barbizon and in the Fontainebleau Forest, following the example of Nicolae Grigorescu, whom he admired. He also traveled to London, Milan, Venice, and Istanbul. He painted extensively in Bulgaria, in Sofia, Silistra, and Balchik, as well as in Dobrogea and along the Danube’s shores.

Ion Alin Gheorghiu (1929-2001), the artist of the Hanging Gardens, curated by Ana-Maria Smigelschi

Large-scale abstract canvases, signed by one of the most significant painters of Romanian Abstractionism and postmodernism during the ideologized period of the Cold War, Ion Alin Gheorghiu, will be exhibited at the Dacia-Romania Palace. Gheorghiu was born into a modest working-class family and had a tumultuous life story. He was admitted to the class of professor Camil Ressu at the Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of Fine Arts with an “exceptional” grade but completed his studies without a diploma because his artwork “Creangă and Eminescu in Iași” was considered nationalist and formalistic during the period of socialist realism.

He was not accepted in the official exhibitions, being forced to unload potatoes at night in the Obor market, to work as a timekeeper, all this time painting where and how he could, not having a studio. This situation lasted until 1958, when he began to be invited to almost all important exhibitions in the country. Being very demanding with his art, he prezsented very few solo exhibitions. The curatorial text of the exhibition is signed by Andrei Pleșu.

Nymphs and Zombies in Romanian contemporary art, curated by Ruth Hibbard from V&A, London

Moreover, an artistic battle will take place at the Palace between two artists with quite contrasting visions: Ondine Slimvoschi (b. 1982) vs. Paul Marat Baraka (b. 1994). Ondine is an artist of serene mythology, of the bestiary of beautiful fairy tales, illustrating her active interest in the aesthetics melancholy of the 19th century. On the other hand, Baraka focuses on shocking and provocative subjects and employs a hyperrealistic style in both painting and sculpture. Baraka’s approach is also critical, highlighting the banality of evil through sarcasm and irony.

In addition to the four exhibitions, Art Safari will showcase a series of art installations that complement the visiting experience. Children will also have their own Art Safari at the Palace, which includes creative workshops and guided tours: https://www.artsafari.ro/asb-kids/.

Art Safari Program (June 30 – September 10, 2023)

Thursday to Sunday – 12:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Night Tours – every Friday and Saturday, 10:00 PM to 1:00 AM (special guided tours in all exhibitions with prosecco)
Tickets: artsafari.ro or directly at the entrance
Dacia-Romania Palace, Lipscani Street, No. 18-20, Bucharest

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