About Sector 1 Gallery
During the last decade, the attention of the international art world has been increasingly focused on Cluj, currently deemed by many to be a hotbed of contemporary visual artistic production. The term Cluj School is used in various international art circles, mainly designating a group of painters, either in their late thirties or in their early to mid-forties, educated, living and at least partially working here. The main features of their art are the calm focus on historical and art historical topics, the figurative mode of painting, the strong belief in the importance and meaningfulness of the aesthetic dimension of painting, the appreciation for the technical quality of painting, the determination to produce painting that is more than a formal exercise, yet is formally appealing. Most Sector One Gallery’s artists, namely Norbert Filep, Pavel Grosu, Alexandra Şerban, Betuker István, Radu Băieş, Marcel Rusu and Lucian Popăilă choose painting as their main medium of artistic expression and have been formed in the specific ambiance and milieu of Cluj during the last decade. Younger than the generation that has given rise to now established Cluj School, they all share however, with each other and with their immediate predecessors a steady faith in the contemporary relevance, value and expressive and semantic potential of painting, as well as the appreciation and striving for its technical mastery and aesthetic quality. More importantly though, they are all less exclusively engaged with the figurative mode of painting, as abstract, gestural approaches and elements are becoming increasingly important in their work. Also, the historical and intellectual reflection is less a topic of interest for them, as they value more painting’s potential for expressing personal, intimate, sentimental and / or spiritual issues, leaving room for somewhat idiosyncratic expressions and experimentations.
Owners
Andreea Stanculeanu
Directors
Cristina Buta -Artistic director