O Florina

O Florina (lit. trans. A/One Florina)- an indefinite artist as identity and individuality with a chameleonic and reflexive artistic speech: visual of hard essence diluted into ephemeral, feeling and mundane chaos. Figurative and narrative drawing is the first visual instrument I use and surrealism as a second one. My body of work is mostly composed of the subject of reality and its conditions of existing translated into a visual medium. I ask questions like Is it true? For whom is it real? Is space relevant in that reality? How is time influencing this narrative? Can I conjure these concepts into an image? because usually the reality that generates these questions is a subjective one based on feelings and interior thoughts.

Florina’s artworks have been exhibited at museums and institutions. Selected group shows include About light and simplicity (@ The National Museum of Contemporary Art of Romania 2018); Day for Night (@ Multicultural Center of Transylvania University, Brașov 2018); Iosif Iser Biennale (@ Ion Ionescu-Quintus Art Museum, Ploiești 2018); Human Marks (The Space @ Art Safari Art Fair, Bucharest 2016); and Collage Art... under Construction (@ National Village Museum “Dimitrie Gusti”, Bucharest 2015). In 2017, she earned an honorable mention in the national art contest “Crama Oprișor Award for contemporary drawing”.

O Florina is a Romanian artist known for her signature sgraffito technique in acrylic or oil paints and the subject of reality and its conditions of existing translated into a visual medium. She uses figurative and narrative drawing as visual instruments and her art is based on experimentation with the properties of the materials she uses. Born in the industrial-oil city of Ploiești (Romania), Florina studied drawing and painting in her hometown at Carmen Sylva College of Arts, as well as in Bucharest at the National University of Arts where she was introduces to illustration and got a B.A. and M.A. in Graphic Arts. She also studied drawing for a semester in Prague at AVU and lived there for almost a year after finishing her studies. Recently she received a grant at Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts where she further developed her observational skills of her surroundings in Mark van Yetter’s studio. In Prague, she was introduced to the art of Josef Bolf who became one of her favorite artists and a catalyst in her technique transition fr om conventional drawing to sgraffito. Other major influences in her work are the layout of tread in tapestry, medieval and early eastern and western church imagery. She lived for two years (2016-2018) in the dystopian rural Romania wh ere faced with the temporal stillness of the countryside she meditated on the nature of reality and developed her sgraffito technique. Now she uses new materials on which to scratch like acrylic painted wood and gypsum plaster. She views her work as an exercise for imagination different for every viewer and in this regard, she encourages an immersive art experience between the viewer and the artwork inviting the public to touch and feel the subtitle scratches of her work. O Florina currently lives and works in Romania.