Rubin’s Vase: Radu Comșa & Sorin Neamțu

Arsmonitor, Bucharest, RO

By Maxime Foucquet

November 29, 2023

Until January 15, 2024, Arsmonitor—the curatorial braindchild of Mia Munteanu and Silviu Padurariu—is showcasing works by Radu Comșa and Sorin Neamțu in a two-person show titled Rubin’s Vase in Bucharest, Romania. The exhibition establishes a unique dialogue between two contemporary artists from the western part of the country, each approaching painting and image issues in distinct ways that unexpectedly resonate in anti-representation.

“The collaboration between Sorin Neamțu and Radu Comșa is an opportunity to recontextualize their work in a renewing way, often received and fixed by replacing it with that of their “masters,” the generation or schools from which the two come. The current dialogue signals that the tricks of interpreting their work question the background in an illusory manner, the invisible Vase between them. It proposes focusing on what is truly visible and, perhaps, not necessarily obvious.” (Press release Arsmonitor)

Sorin Neamțu—student of the renowned Constantin Flondor in Timișoara (2006)—views drawing and painting as witnesses to his personal transformations, employing continuous self-analysis and self-reference. His artistic process balances rational research and emotional contemplation, with forms and structures emerging after reason and reflection give way to meditative efforts. In contrast, Radu Comșa, educated in Cluj as part of the post-2000 generation, takes a radicalized stance against iconic narrations. Painting serves as a subjective laboratory where traditional tools intertwine with contemporaneity through quotation, installation, and applied arts like design and textiles. Comșa explores anthropometric limitations and deviations of human visual perception, presenting a painting approach that is anti-iconic.

“The dialogue exhibition “Rubin’s Vase” discusses a series of recent works by the two artists at an essential point in their artistic careers, proposing atypical formats and mediums for their known approach until now. The large-scale unstretched paintings of Sorin Neamțu and the film and leather sculpture of Radu Comșa are the main axes created for this dialogue between forms and backgrounds.”

The dialogue between their works, showcased in “Rubin’s Vase,” features recent pieces that deviate from their known approaches. The title, Rubin’s Vase, references perceptual issues in Gestalt psychology, particularly Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin’s observation about the interchangeable and unstable relationship between form and background. The exhibition explores the meeting point between Neamțu’s meditative approach to painting and Comșa’s anti-iconic stance. Neamțu’s forms dissolve into the background as a result of the process, while Comșa’s backgrounds materialize into form and object. The exhibition plays on the concept that the mind often searches for contours where none exist and may refuse to acknowledge the obvious. This collaboration prompts a recontextualization of Neamțu and Comșa’s work, challenging interpretations that often fixate on the influences of their “masters” or respective generations. The dialogue suggests that the illusions in interpreting their work question the background in an illusory manner, proposing a focus on what is truly visible and, perhaps, not necessarily obvious.

For more information and further inquiries, please visit Arsmonitor’s website here.