Remus Grecu

b. 1976, Romanian

Remus Grecu is best known for his deeply psychological paintings rendered in a distinctive representational visual language. Marked by surrealism, the absurd, and various sociological issues, Grecu depicts dream-like images of figures in an ‘in-between’ state, frozen in time and space. “My work explores the relationship between reality and poetry within a defined cinematic intensity. The display of light and shade is also an important aspect of my paintings.” In the past few years, his work has known two essential shifts in his visual language and creative process. The first, shifting from dark scenery to vivid colors. The latter, shifting from a naturalist aesthetic working from photographic reference materials to a stylized aesthetics, painting from the heart and hist unparalleled imagination.

Grecu used to build his own sets and attributes in order to ‘direct’ the image he was looking for. By manner of photography, Grecu makes sketches of these scenes before painting them over a long period of time. As a result, the paintings look like moving ‘stills’ with the seductive quality of a painting. In doing so, the Romanian painter investigates themes such as magic, isolation, rites, corruption of the human mind, censorship, religion, social disease, and alienation. “As an artist, I’m not to reveal answers through my work; however, to generate questions for the spectator and make them think and wonder. I am not interested in representing ‘per se’ the subject from within my paintings, as much as I want to veil it under a certain kind of haze and a poetical whiff. After all, the subject is in the eye and mind of the viewer; the artist should deliver veiled subjects and mystery.” Today, the artist constructs these sets in his mind, increasing the spontaneity and subconscious aspect that is inherently related to his artistic practice.

Remus Grecu was born in 1976 in Bucharest, Romania. He studied at the University of Arts in Bucharest before moving to London and Stockholm—exploring the vibrant nightlife of a metropole to spending nights in dark Scandinavian woods accompanied by wildlife. The Romanian artist has exhibited across the globe and participated in institutional and/or museum shows, for instance, the Romanian Culture Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, or the Staedel Art Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.

Remus Grecu resides and works in Bucharest, Romania.

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