NYAB Event - Serban Ionescu Exhibition

Serban Ionescu Exhibition

Bridge Gallery

This event has ended.

“It kind of makes me laugh” - A perfect reaction from viewers of SECRET HISTORY by SERBAN IONESCU

Bridge Gallery presents Serban Ionescu: Secret History an exhibition that examines Serban Inoescu’s Romanian heritage through an exploration of myth, folklore and childhood tales.

Dismantling and reconfiguring archetypes found throughout the cultural landscape. Ionescu questions and contemplates the underpinnings of our society. Trained as an architect his fascination lays within ideas of migration, memory, urban living, the city, and the effects of the given moment, on art. “ My work is meant to be enjoyed; even a 9 year old can get it. At times, I make constructs that are toy like – juxtaposing the innocence of childhood with darker more aggressive aspects of maturity”. A bit of Peter Pan, Ionescu wants to create a place of comfort and familiarity yet filled with the mystery and disquiet of the unknown.

Drawing on his heritage, Ionescu invites you into his world with his depiction of the Blajini - a mythical being that is unique to Romania. The Blajini is a short, squat anthropomorphic creature with the head of a rat. According to folklore it was a creature of duality on one end of the spectrum through it’s sinless purity it could lead you down the road of salvation or in it’s malicious iteration it could lead down the path of damnation. In sync with the concept of duality the specter does not know whether hug Ionescu’s rendition of this creature or run in the opposite direction. Once past the Blajini three quasi-human sculpted heads impaled on steel rods, are presented perhaps referencing Vlad the Impaler. Beyond the impaled heads lay “fang wall” the wall stands ‘on point’ literally. Once beyond the ‘fang wall’ the viewer is fully ensconced in Ionescu’s world. It is a space filled with elements of quite subversion, with edginess and a freshness that transcends and undermines traditional values.

Confining himself to a limited palette of back, white and rust Ionescu creates a space that explodes into a visual cacophony of ideas and relationships. A series of graphically strong works on paper articulate Ionescu’s unique, provocative style. There is a compelling urgency in the work. Ionescu’s 3D rusted steel cars are boomeranged right back to the viewer on painted canvases and painted steel plates. The two large vertical canvases painted with sumi ink are strong graphic works that speak of myth and metaphor are filled with iconographic imagery and pageantry. The artist scrawls words and images across the canvas; providing the viewer with visual lines that include ‘faux real’, ‘the errorist ‘,’Vagabond 007’. The work is a landscape of familiar language, where cars and mythological creatures abound.
Words, symbols, and images are shown pragmatically, semantically and syntax. It is a world of semiotics, which challenges the viewer to examine closely, what is being presented. What is discovered is something more that just the novelty of quick witted, often-dark humor. There is host of unique universal ideas presented in a manner that sets up a whole new set of rules.