A mixed media work in which fragments of tile, paper, and painted canvas are arranged according to a structural system derived loosely from cubism — each fragment showing a different angle of the same domestic interior, the relationships between them suggesting but never completing a coherent space.
The work sits between painting and object. Seen from a distance, the compositional structure dominates; seen closely, the individual fragments become available — their textures, edges, and partial images suddenly readable in a way the overall composition suppresses.
About the artist
Ioana Barbu's paintings combine the precision of realist technique with subjects and situations that cannot exist — architecture that opens onto impossible spaces, figures that cast the wrong shadows, rooms that contain more than their dimensions allow. She builds this pictorial logic carefully and with deliberate slowness, which is partly why the impossible elements feel grounded rather than theatrical.
She studied at the National University of Arts in Bucharest and has been working in surrealist modes for over a decade, developing a visual language that is entirely her own. She accepts commissions from collectors comfortable with giving her significant creative freedom.
