Hortensia Mi Kafchin

b. 1986, Romanian

Biography

Hortensia Mi Kafchin is a Romanian contemporary artist residing and working in Cluj, Romania and Berlin, Germany. Kafchin is internationall y known for her complex narratives in her surreal figurative paintings and the philosophic weight of her intriguing installations. Within her oeuvre, she examines concepts such as cosmology, dystopia, time and (Eastern) philosophy.[1]

Born in 1986 in Galati, Romania, Mi Kafchin’s oeuvre is marked by many different personal transitions, from east to west, science to spirituality and from man to woman. Formerly known as the Mihut Boscu Kafchin, Mi Kafchin was the former studio assistant of Adrian Ghenie before taking over his Cluj studio and becoming a prominent figure herself in the Cluj contemporary art scene.

Marked by an adoration for experiment, Hortensia Mi Kafchin – who has specialized in pottery, glass and metal at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca – blends an array of techniques and media such as drawing, painting, sculpture and installation in order to reflect upon the collage-like visual world of the current era dominated by media and the digital.[2]

Portrait of Mi Kafchin. Photo: MK (c).

Hortensia Mi Kafchin has studied at the University of Art and Design in Cluj. Since graduating in 2010, she has been exhibiting and across the globe and is being represented by industry leading galleries such Galeria Plan B or Nicodim Gallery.

The Romanian artist has had solo and group shows at major institutions such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, Romania; the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austra; the Espace Cultural Louis Vuitton in Paris, France; the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France; the New Museum in New York, the United States of America; the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland; the MuMoK Museum Moderner Kunst in Vienna, Austria and the Kunsthalle Budapest in Budapest, Hungary. Further, Mi Kafch in has participated in the 2013 Prague Biennale, Czech Republic and La Triennale in Paris in 2012, France. Hortensia Mi Kafchin is collected by renowned private and public collection such as the Art Collection Telekom Centre, Germany; Centre Nation d’Art et de Culture Georges-Pompidou in Paris, France; the collection Maria Enzersdorf in Austria.

Artworks

Mi Kafchin, Spring in Chernobyl, 2019. Oil on canvas – 191 x 295 cm. Courtesy Nicodim Gallery.
Mi Kafchin, Necrophilias Near the Runway, 2018. Oil on canvas – 200 x 250 cm. Courtesy Nicodim Gallery.
Mi Kafchin. Instinct Climbing the Stairs, 2018. Oil on cardboard – 100 x 70 cm. Courtesy Nicodim Gallery.
Mihut Boscu Kafchin, Political Alchemy, 2016. Oil on canvas – 184 × 214 cm. Courtesy Galeria Plan B.
Mihut Boscu Kafchin, Quarrel at the Fountain of Youth, 2016. Oil on canvas – 90 × 142 cm. Courtesy Galeria Plan B.
Mihut Boscu Kafchin, TV that lives alone, 2015. Oil on styrofoam – 37 × 37 cm. Courtesy Galeria Plan B.

Notes:

[1] Elephant, New Establishment: Mi Kafchin at https://elephant.art/new-establishment-mi-kafchin/ consulted 16/01/2021.
[2] Galerie Judin, Hortensia Mi Kafchin at https://www.galeriejudin.com/artists/hortensia-mi-kafchin/about.html consulted 7/04/2021.