At the Új Kriterion Gallery in Miercurea Ciuc (Harghita, RO), artist Petru Lucaci presents BLACK AND BLACK, an in-depth exploration of the universe of black — a visual journey he has pursued consistently for over three decades. Curated by Ruxandra Demetrescu, the exhibition brings together works from different stages of his career, revealing how black, far from being a mere chromatic choice, has become a powerful expressive medium in Lucaci’s practice.

Since the 1990s, black has gradually become the defining element of his work, shaping series such as Noctumbre, Alb / Negru, Night Shadows, Clarobscur and Black-based Cocktail. Lucaci works with different types of black — from ivory black to lamp black — applied in dense layers of oil or charcoal to build tactile, almost sculptural surfaces. The subtle contrasts between light and darkness in his works are not only visual but also material, inviting the viewer to slow down and approach them with a gaze that is both visual and tactile.

The exhibition explores the fragile boundary between visible and invisible, full and void, closeness and distance. Rather than a limitation, the reduced palette becomes a space of freedom, in which Lucaci investigates the symbolic and energetic potential of black, questioning the common prejudices often attached to it. In both his two-dimensional and three-dimensional works — from charcoal drawings to stratified painted wood objects — the artist creates a world that urges the viewer to look beyond appearances and discover the light hidden within darkness.

The exhibition opened on 10 September 2025 and will remain on view until 9 November 2025.

BLACK AND BLACK — through the eyes of curator Ruxandra Demetrescu

~ art historian, art critic, and university professor

“As a sole chromatic possibility, black represents, on the one hand, the cancellation of the previous chromaticism — once centered on the expressive power of colors and on the contrast between light and dark — and, on the other hand, an accentuation of spatial depth, by forcing the dialogue between near and distant vision, between haptic and purely optical seeing.”

Petru Lucaci notes:

“Black challenged me as a painter. I worked with it in various contexts, experiencing its fullness and expressive force, and that’s why I wanted to follow its presence in art more closely.”

Aware of the radical nature of his choice, he adds:

“Black hides a vast field of meanings, and at the same time, an immense expressive force. I discovered that black matter holds energies we usually overlook, and that our prejudices about its supposed negativity can harm painting — which is, at its core, defined by color.”

Concerned with both the virtues and the limits of painting, Lucaci has often worked against the grain of its traditional components: drawing, chiaroscuro, color, spatial construction, and even the notion of narrative within the image. Transforming chiaroscuro into painting reduced to black became his most compelling visual experiment: it cancels chromaticism while preserving the tension between light and darkness. In this context, the influence of black-and-white photography and film noir has been stronger than any revisiting of the “imaginary museum” of European painting rooted in tenebrism.

By valorizing “black matter”, Lucaci has developed distinctive visual strategies over time. Among them is the exclusive use of oil paint — especially ivory black or lamp black — to achieve a dense, almost material substance. In seeking the haptic dimension of black, he has also aimed to (re)create a substance — charcoal — and to transform the basic material of studio practice, the charcoal drawing, into a distinct materiality, exploring its tactile potential in painting-objects.  (Curator Ruxandra Demetrescu)

Photos by Galeria Új Kriterion & Propagarta

Ioana Palamar (b. 1989, Rădăuți, Suceava, Romania) is a visual artist and lecturer at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași, within the Painting Department. She holds a bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degree from the same institution, and beyond her academic role, she is an active presence on both the national and international art scene.

Violet Deppness (2017)

Another way of self-defence

Her style is defined by chromatic austerity and the fragmentary representation of the face and body, transformed into metaphors of memory and identity. Rooted in childhood and adolescent memories, her works convey both fragility and resilience. Critics have highlighted the apparent stillness, the suspension of time, and the tension between the ephemeral and the eternal that emerge from her practice.

For Ioana, the creative act is more than visual expression: it is a way of being, a form of existence and breathing. “Even a landscape can be an ‘selfportrait,’ because it reflects my way of being, of conceiving art, of existing through it and therefore of breathing,” the artist affirms. This statement reveals the profoundly subjective dimension of her work, where self-portraiture transcends the literal face and becomes any visual form that reflects the inner self.

Sparkle (2023)

“The concept of my work intertwines itself within glances, within silences, within faces that quietly retreat into the shadows of the unconscious—where they ascend, piercing the cryptic heavens of a self not yet revealed. My hand wanders in search of the traces of two bodies, discreetly emerging beneath the shadow of an eye encircled by an infinity of other eyes, hidden in the soul’s skin of bygone times. 

I open one door, then another, and another still—onward, into infinity—in an endless search for selves... A (non-)face gazes back, contemplative, beyond the window of a seasonless sky, merging with the humble rise of a blade of grass, or with some extension of the nostalgia that has haunted me for years. And now my layered melancholy yellows, ripens, and suddenly falls, like an overripe fruit, stripping my eye bare and leaving it Naked in the darkness of Light.”

In essence, Ioana Palamar is an artist of introspection and memory, who transforms pictorial fragments and silence into spaces of reflection and reconnection with the self, inviting viewers into an experience of self-discovery.

This article presents a selection from her artistic universe, spanning paintings, ceramic works, and acrylic pieces.

Discover more of her works and artistic journey by visiting her website and personal pages, where she regularly shares new artworks, articles, and accounts of her artist residencies.

Photo credits - Ioana Palamar

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best."