Synthetic Landscape 2, 2016, acrylic,marker, oil on canvas, 150×90 cm

Click below to see additional work by Stefan Petrica

Petrica Stefan is a young painter (b. 1988, Resita) living in Timisoara, Romania. He has an MFA degree in Painting from the West University in Timisoara.

“Petrică Ştefan’s painting evolves under certain rules imposed by the artist himself. With a carefully built studio routine, the painter thoroughly explores ways and methods of rendering matter in its various forms, from heavy, earthly consistencies to aerial vibrations and a certain line parallelism that become, altogether, real communication networks between the types of space he introduces in his works. Although shapes are not missing, and the construction of the image is similar to a study after life, the mental challenges that he creates stand in the comprehension of the whole. One could say that he paints in an abstract manner from this point of view, of abstract thinking transposed into visual image. The fragments he depicts, diverse and combined, seem to be part of a knowledgeable wholeness.

Being taught in an academic environment where abstraction had been practiced for decades, and I am referring to the Art University in Timişoara, he studied with Cristian Sida, a well-known abstract artist himself, who had been Romul Nuţiu’s studio assistant. Petrică Ştefan  continues the practice and transforms it in his own style, always looking for new ways of expression of his ideas. His style can be easily recognized after a few distinctive elements: small, vibrate color spots juxtaposed on rigorous and repetitive parallel lines drawn on large-scale surfaces. His backgrounds are painted in light, aerial colors that remind us of sky details painted by the masters of landscape. He uses mixed media, acrylic or oil paint combined with a rigorous drawing in ink.” (Simona Vilau on occasion of the exhibition „Fluid Networks“, 2017)

WORKS IN ART COLLECTIONS
Art in Embassies
Private collections in Europe and USA

BIBLIOGRAPHY
On Space | Petrica Stefan
Catalogue ‘Art in Embassies Exhibition’, United States Embassy, Bucharest | Art in Embassies, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C., 2016

SELECTED ARTICLES
Young Artists, Young Friends – New Contemporaries | arthotshot.com, Antonella Grevers
Cetate Arts Danube – Impressions by Victoria Dejaco | Vienna Contemporary Mag, August 2018
Metafora hibrid a contemporaneitatii – Forbes, martie 2017
7 intrebari si un artist – Art7, aprilie 2016
Despre spatiu – Revista Arta, martie – iunie 2016

SYMPOSIA
Artists in Residence, Serbia
Cetate Arts Danube – Artists in Residence, 2014, 2016 – 2019, Cetate Arts Danube Center, Cetate, Romania