DAN MACIUCA Born 1979, Romania
Installation view at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art
Dark Smoke Oil on canvas 150 x 130 cm 2018 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
“About three years ago I travelled to Cluj in Romania spurred on by inspiring reports of Adrian Sutton, then working for BlainSouthern gallery, about Cluj being one of the most thriving art scenes in Eastern Europe with a deeply rooted tradition in painting. In the following years I returned frequently for exhibitions, road trips and many studio visits. Amongst many fascinating and skilled artists, Dan’s paintings were unique, embedded in art history, yet with an idiosyncratic approach to painting and the country’s history. Looking at Dan’s works I sense the remains of a ruined socialist past that dissolves and ultimately becomes invigorated by fresh, daring colours and broad, confident brush strokes.” (Patrick Heide)
For a better Chance Oil on canvas 120 x 140 cm 2019 € 5,500.00 incl. VAT
New Entry Oil on canvas 50 x 70 cm 2019 € 2,500.00 incl. VAT
Sentence Oil on canvas 20 x 30 cm 2019 € 1,200.00 incl. VAT
Countryside Oil on canvas 140 x 120 cm 2019 € 5,500.00 incl. VAT
Massive Habitation Oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm 2016 € 9,000.00 incl. VAT
Dan Maciuca’s expressive and dynamic compositions oscillate between figuration and abstraction. The Romanian artist’s central theme is the deconstruction of past and present realities through the force of pictorial gestures originating from a reaction to 20th-century political and social ideologies, in particular Communism. An alienation from the country’s past, its figures and surroundings depicted through unsettling, dark colours and moods are a shared trademark of the Cluj School of artists, which sets the tone for an atmosphere that also permeates Maciuca’s oeuvre. Maciuca examines these dichotomies through the transformation of utopian sceneries. Depictions of Brutalist architecture are stirred up and set into motion by sweeping brushstrokes, interspersed with swirls and outbursts of colour. Maciuca’s canvases often bear references to his home country’s twisted and problematic history to be then swept aside by a desire for movement and change. His urban landscapes possess the ambivalent beauty of post-apocalyptic settings, chiming subliminally with current city views. Emotional yet thoughtful in composition, heavy, busy and dense in execution, Maciuca paints his own utopian reality, a world drenched with the energy of potential renewal.
Installation view at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art
Shadow and Light in Autumn Oil on canvas 150 x 130 cm 2017 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
The Blue Bridge Oil on canvas 150 x 130 cm 2017 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
Warmth of the Summer Oil on canvas 150 x 120 cm 2016-2017 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
Sunset before Rain Oil on canvas 120 x 150 cm 2016-2017 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
Dam of Water Oil on canvas 40 x 70 cm 2017 € 2,500.00 incl. VAT
Private Collection, Germany
“Dan Maciuca represents a generation of artists trained after the 1989 Romanian Revolution at the so-called Cluj School of Art in Transylvania. Along with celebrated artists like Adrian Ghenie, Victor Man, Mircea Suciu and Ciprian Muresan, Dan Maciuca comes from a studio community in a former paintbrush factory in Cluj that is for sure one of the main contemporary art hotspots in Europe.�
Private Collection, Germany
Maciuca developed his own route towards a gestural and more fluid painting style. His compositions are somewhat abstract-expressionist, partly applied in thick impasto, often against a backdrop of geometric, figurative elements, buildings or landscapes. In part reminiscent of Auerbach, de Kooning or the Cobra School, Maciuca experimented with similar techniques and ideas about painting, to finally discover his artistic soul mates much later and only by chance through the Internet.�
Evening Arrival Oil on canvas 130 x 150 cm 2016 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
New Factory Oil on canvas 150 x 130 cm 2016 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
Pink Light Oil on canvas 150 x 130 cm 2017 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
Installation view at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art
Outside the City Oil on canvas 150 x 130 cm 2015 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
Random Access Oil on canvas 120 x 140 cm 2016 € 5,500.00 incl. VAT
Under Floodlights Oil on canvas 150 x 130 cm 2017 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
Safe Pastel, charcoal on paper 60 x 40 cm, unframed 2019 € 2,000.00 incl. VAT
Square Structure Charcoal, pastel on paper 65 x 72 cm, unframed 2019 € 2,500.00 incl. VAT
The Violet Theatre Oil on canvas 150 x 130 cm 2018 € 6,000.00 incl. VAT
Installation view at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art
Looking at our Isolation Oil on canvas 110 x 100 cm 2015 € 4,500.00 incl. VAT
Burned Earth Oil on canvas 30 x 60 cm 2019 € 2,000.00 incl. VAT
Former Playground Oil on canvas 40 x 60 cm 2014 € 2,200.00 incl. VAT
DAN MACIUCA Born in 1979, Cluj, Romania Lives and works in Cluj, Romania Education 2002-08 2008-13
BA & MA degrees in painting, University of Art and Design, Cluj PhD research Cultural Interferences, University of Art and Design, Cluj
Scholarships 2005-06 2004
Accademia di Belle Arti, San Martino delle Scalle, Palermo VSTUP, University of Arts & Architecture, Prague
Selected Solo Exhibitions 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2012 2011 2009 2006
Zorzini Gallery, Bucharest (with Szilard Gaspar) Incandescent Spece for Incandescent Time, Zorzini Gallery, Bucharest Utopian Proximity, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London Resonance by Three Cardinal Points, Zorzini gallery, Bucharest Colliding Geometry, Zorzini gallery, Bucharest Nothing To Hide, Bazis Platform, Cluj Common Place, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest Post-Romantic. Post Rock. Post Socialist Realism, Laika gallery, Bucharest Critical Temperature, Art Museum, Cluj-Napoca
Selected Group Exhibitions 2018 2017 2015 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2008
Dark Smoke, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London (with Ioana Iacob and Dan Beudean) On Paper, Bazis Platform, Centru de Interes, Cluj-Napoca Neon Gallery / Art Academy, Wroclaw Apparence and Essence, Art Encounters, Timisoara Painting Cluj, Martin Kudlek Gallery, Cologne The Flesh Of Things. Un-Painting The Romantics, Jecza Gallery, Timisoara Hidden Field, Bazis Platform, Pescara Mutation, BAZIS contemporary art space, Berlin Hotspot Cluj. New Romanian Art, Arken Museum, Copenhagen Cluj Meets Berlin, Bazis Platform, Berlin V.I.C, Espace Christiane Peugeot, Paris Modern Talking, Art Museum, Cluj-Napoca The First Ten Years, Radio Galleries, Art Museum, Cluj-Napoca Unusual Suspects, Ivan gallery, Bucharest Under Natural Circumstances, Modern Museum, Debreen