Mircea Suciu

Biography

Mircea Suciu is a Romanian visual artist residing and working in Cluj, Romania. Suciu is known for his unique technique combining his monotype—an image transfer technique similar to monoprint—with painting, resulting in a unique figurative imagery consisting of multiple layers in substance and in subject matter.

Born in 1978 in Baia Mara, Romania, the Romanian artist – one of the most important painters from the contemporary art scene in Cluj – tackles topics of socio-political concerns or psychological issues rooted in the contemporary human condition. Concepts such as pain, power, metaphysics, (mass) identity, philosophy, religion and meaning (of life) are effectuated in his characteristic mixed technique.

Suciu’s monotype technique conists of transferring often edited photographical images or art historical icons onto the canvas. In order to transfer large images, Suciu fragments the original imagery into several transfers, creating a vibrating and grid-like effect on his canvas. Then, the Romanian painter reworks the image with oil and acrylic paint. From a visual point of view, Suciu’s work is dominated by photographic black and white subjects on a coloured – most often blue(s) – painted backdrop. The accuracy of the photographic image is enforced by the seductive qualities of painting, alternating thick impastos with transparent layers of paint.[1][2]

In tradition of the historical phenomenon of the so-called Cluj School, Suciu’s oeuvre is a result of Romania’s uneasy but intriguing transition from Communism, Ceasescu and the Romanian Revolution to globalization and Capitalism. Suciu notes a clash of cultures in the ongoing globalization, confronting Greek antiquity with Campbell’s soup or a niqab with a vanitas skull. Doing so, Suciu indicates not only the opportunities of globalization but also its consequences and the terrifying quest for a new balance and reconciliation of conflicting elements for humanity in the contemporary era.[3]

Mircea Suciu studied at the University of Art and Design in Cluj, Romania, achieving his MA in 2005. Ever since, the Romanian artist has exhibited across the globe and is represented by industry leading galleries such as Zeno X Gallery and Blain Southern Gallery. Suciu has participated in several important biennales such as the 4th Prague Biennia, Cz ech Republic, in 2009 and the 11th Instabul Biennial, Turkey, or the Gwangju Biennial in South Korea in 2014. Further, in 2016 Suciu participated in the 16th Vilnius Painting Triennial, Lithuanie followed by the Art Encounters Timisoara Biennial in 2017.

Suciu has exhibited at major institutions such as the Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany; the Weserburg Museum in Bremen, Germany; Museum Beelden aan Zee in The Hague, The Netherlands; the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, the United States of America; Espace Louis Vuitton in Paris, France; Fondation Francès in Senlis, France; Maison Particulière in Brussels, Belgium; MODEM Center for Modern and Contemporary Art in Debrecen, Hungary and the Mucsarnok Kunsthalle in Budapest, Hungary.[4] Suciu is collected by renowned private and public collections, such as the Fondation Francès Senlis in Paris, France or the Muzeul de Arta Recente, The Recent Art Museum in Bucharest, Romania.[5]

Books on Mircea Suciu

For further reading on Mircea Suciu we highly recommend the following books:

• Mircea Suciu: Hotel Empathy. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig/Zeno X Book: 2019.
• Vitamin D2: New Perspectives in Drawing. London: Phaidon, 2018.
• Charlotte Mullins, Picturing People: The New State of the Art. Thames & Hudson: 2015.

Artworks

Notes:

[1] Zeno X Gallery, Mircea Suciu at http://www.zeno-x.com/artists/SM/mircea_suciu_bio.html consulted 27/03/2021.
[2] Mircea Suciu and Jurriaan Benschop, Mircea Suciu : Hotel Empathy. (Antwerp/Veurne /London: Zeno X Books/Hannibal/Koenig Books, 2019), p. 95.
[3] Julien Delagrange, Apologia. Kortrijk: CAI, 2021.
[4] Ibidem note 1.
[5] Artfacts, Mircea Suciu at https://artfacts.net/artist/mircea-suciu/44808/biography consulted 27/03/2021.